A PK Smashing Experience
by Dangerous Bunnies
Summary: After finding out that he was invited to join the third Super Smash Bros. Tournament along with a friend, Ness asks Lucas to join him in his adventures at Smash Mansion. What friends and memories will they make? Rated T for language and future violence.
1. A Letter From Master Hand

**Hi, readers! This is Kai, one of the Dangerous Bunnies speaking, and we've finally published our first story! :]**

**Hey everybody its Mato! The other Dangerous Bunny. This is finally done after all the hard work and procrastination.**

**Kai: Believe it or not, this story was supposed to come out a year ago, but every time Mato came over to my house to work on it, we would only write about 2-3 paragraphs, then say "We're bored!" and start playing Brawl.**

**Mato: And then one day we were like "NO MORE! We need to work AGHHHHH!" and surprisingly finish the whole chapter that day.**

**Kai: I'm proud of ourselves for finally finishing it, and we can only hope that you guys enjoy it!**

**Mato: Our account is run by two separate people which are Kai and I and we work as much as our easily distracted brains could. :)**

**Kai: You can check our profile for more information. Anyways, this is only the first chapter of many to come. But I'll warn you now, this chapter focuses _heavily_ on Earthbound/Mother. For those of you who are reading this and don't know anything about the Mother series, we'll gladly put notes at the end to explain the parts you're confused about. And for those of you who came here thinking this was a Brawl story, IT IS. It's only the beginning. I promise you that by the next chapter, it's only going to be about Brawl and its characters.**

**Mato: Of course no spoilers for the game itself for people who haven't played or watched and want to see for themselves. And now Kai and I are proud to present a Dangerous Bunnies original Fanfic: A PK Smashing Experience.**

* * *

><p>Ness rolled around in his bed, unconsciously clutching his pillow to his chest. The smile on his face seemed more or less than seductive, and a thin line of drool leaked from the left side of his mouth. "Ooh, Steak-chan, who knew you could be so sizzling <em>hot<em> when it came to these things…"

Sadly, the PSI-user never got to finish whatever he was doing with "Steak-chan," because a loud _THUMP_ jolted him awake from his sleep. Ness quickly sat up, frantically scanning his room to see what caused the noise. He glared when his gaze stopped on the alarm clock, which read 1:10 AM. Sighing, he shifted his position so that he was sitting on the foot of his bed.

"And that was such a good dream, too…" he muttered. He flinched after the loud noise repeated, this time a bit louder than the first. Lazily getting out of bed, he inserted his feet into his slippers and trudged towards his sister's room.

Slowly opening Tracy's door, Ness noticed that his sister was still asleep, completely apathetic of the noises he'd heard about a minute ago. He walked over to her and smiled when he heard her snoring slightly, but also a little regrettable to wake her up this early in the morning.

Shaking her carefully, Ness whispered, "Trace, wake up!"

Tracy moaned and blinked a few times before her innocent expression turned into one of pure indignation. "IT'S ONLY ONE IN THE MORNING! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING UP SO EARLY?"

Wincing at her sudden outburst, Ness slapped a hand over her mouth and exclaimed quietly, "Shhh! Mom and King are still sleeping! Besides, didn't you hear some loud noise outside?"

Tracy rudely shoved her brother's hand away from her mouth and sat up. "They're all the way downstairs, doofus. Mom even wears earmuffs when she goes to bed! And what loud noise? I didn't hear anything until _you_ woke me up," she snapped, her hands resting on her hips.

"Well, _excuse_ me for checking to see if my sister was okay! It doesn't even matter if Mom has earmuffs on or not, your loud voice will just penetrate through them, anyway!" Ness retaliated, forgetting to whisper.

Glaring, Tracy stood up so that the two were nose-to-nose. "EXCUSE ME?"

"What is going on in here?"

Instantly, the siblings stopped fighting and gradually turned around to face who had addressed them.

"Tracy, I can hear you from the living room!" their mother shouted. The aforementioned blonde frowned apologetically. An uncomfortable silence followed their mother's outbreak.

"Erm…" Ness started awkwardly. "Sorry about that, Mom. I heard a loud noise outside a few minutes ago and I went to see if Tracy was okay, so I woke her up and… yeah." He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "You know how she is in the morning."

His mom took a second to absorb everything he said and nodded. "I see. Thank you for being honest, Ness. Just try not to wake up your sister this early ever again. Now, make up."

Ness and Tracy turned to each other and smiled after giving their apologies. Their mother smiled delightedly and clasped her hands together. "Okay, everyone back to bed!" she said before turning on her heels and nearly leaving the room, until Ness perked up.

"But mom, the noise…?"

"Oh, I'm sure that was all in your head," she assured him. "Go back to your room, now."

Ness nodded and was about to head back into his own room, until…

_THUMP!_

Everyone immediately jerked their heads around to Tracy's window, where the source of the noise came from. "There!" Ness said eagerly. "That's the exact same sound I heard earlier!"

_THUMP!_

Panicking, Tracy rushed over to her window and stuck her head out to get a closer view. "Someone's out there…"

"Outside our house?" their mother asked.

"Yeah… It looks like…" Tracy took a moment to squint and gasped. "They're trying to break into our mailbox!"

"W-What?" Her mom ran towards the window to glimpse at the scene.

"Uhh… our mailbox?" Ness asked. "Of all things?"

Tracy shrugged. "Maybe you should check it out. Just in case."

Ness nodded and bolted straight back to his room. He briskly nabbed his red cap and slipped it on, slightly adjusting it to the side so that his messy black hair wouldn't irritate him. He also grabbed his baseball bat before leaving the room, not bothering to change out of his pajamas.

* * *

><p>"Ready, boy?"<p>

Downstairs, Ness and King were crouching before the front door. Ness was readying his bat, and King whimpered next to him, but nodded. Ness nodded back, and cautiously reached for door handle.

A few seconds passed before Ness roughly yanked the door open, almost detaching it from its hinges. He let out a war cry and ran to the figure trying to break into the mailbox, but stopped in his tracks as soon as he realized who it was.

"Pokey," he sighed, "what are you doing." It was a statement, not a question.

"Your mailbox is glowing!" Pokey pointed out. Ness quirked an eyebrow. "I saw it all the way from my room! There's _got_ to be something valuable in there if it's glowing _that_ brightly!"

Ness and King exchanged confused glances. They walked up to Pokey and the mailbox and saw that he was right. Getting a closer look, the boy just noticed the hammer in his "friend's" hand. _He must've been desperate…_ He put his hand on the mailbox lid and opened it with ease.

Pokey gaped. "I-I loosened it," he said.

Ness stuck his hand in the mailbox to find one letter. Once he took it out, the little space—well, not so little, considering Pokey's there—the three occupied was enveloped in a bright light. It was coming from the envelope. The PSI-user turned the letter around, and looked at the sticker than was sealing the envelope. It was…

"The Super Smash Bros. symbol!" Ness gasped, and quickly started to open the envelope. Pokey and King just stared at him, confused.

Once he got the letter out, he began to read it to himself.

_Ness,_

_It is that time of year again, and you are once again invited to participate in the third annual Super Smash Bros. tournament. In this letter is enclosed not one ticket to Smash Mansion, but two, for you have the choice to bring another friend whom you think has the potential to become a fighter._

_Choose wisely, and I look forward to meeting you again in two days._

_Master Hand_

"Yes!" Ness began to dance around his front yard. He kissed King's head, and even went so far as to hug Pokey (although his hands didn't quite reach around his back).

"What does it say?" Pokey asked.

Ness ignored him and continued to do his little dance, all the way back into his house. King followed him inside, and Pokey tried to, but the door slammed shut before he could get in.

* * *

><p>"—and so when I read that part, I already knew who to invite!" Ness said eagerly, steak bits flying from his mouth.<p>

It was now 7:00 AM, and Ness, Tracy, their mom, and King were all eating breakfast around the dining table. Everyone was eating steak, including King.

"Bro, finish chewing before you start talking…" Tracy grimaced. Ness swallowed his food.

"Oh? And who are you planning to take with you?" Ness' mom inquired.

Ignoring Tracy, he replied eagerly, "Lucas!" The other two stared at him for a while, then looked at each other, worried. Ness noticed this and explained, "Since Lucas is a powerful PSI-user too, I thought he would be a good addition to the tournament."

"But do you really think Lucas would agree to go with you?" Tracy asked, still worried. "You know how he is…"

"How about asking his twin brother, Claus? I think he would say yes without any hesitation, and I think he would enjoy it," his mom added.

"Well, I know Claus seems like he would fit in with the other Smashers better, but Lucas needs to get stronger. He needs to experience new things and get more confident. Yeah, he has all these powerful abilities, but he doesn't use them. I want him to make use of them," Ness clarified.

Tracy and her mom looked at each other for a brief moment, then nodded. They smiled at Ness. "I understand," Tracy told him. "It would do well for Lucas to experience the life of a fighter." Their mom nodded in agreement. Ness smiled back at them.

"When are you planning to tell him?"

"Hmm…" Ness mused. "The tournament doesn't start until two days, and the train doesn't come until tomorrow, so I guess I can tell him now. That way he'll have time to pack today and leave with me on the train tomorrow." He pushed his empty plate forward. "I'll see you two in a bit." The two females said okay and waved at him.

Ness went outside and prepared to use PSI Teleport. He started running forward, and before he could stop himself or realize it, he smacked face-first into a tree.

* * *

><p>Muttering a string of curse words while dusting himself off, Ness soon found himself in Tazmily Village Square. He ran to Lucas' house as fast as he could. His excitement helped him get there faster.<p>

In Lucas' front yard, Ness noticed Boney waking up in his doghouse. Ness grinned at him and went over to pet him. Upon seeing the PSI-user, the dog barked happily and wagged his tail. After he was done petting Boney, he knocked on the front door, with the dog following him. A familiar orange-headed boy answered it. "Hey, Ness!" Claus greeted. "What's up?"

"Hey, Claus! Is Lucas awake yet?"

"I think so, but he's still upstairs. Do you want me to go get him?"

"Can you?"

Claus nodded, and before bounding up the stairs, called out to his parents, "Mom, Dad, Ness is here!"

Ness and Boney (who took seat on the rug in the living room) walked in and saw that Hinawa and Flint were at the kitchen table eating breakfast. _Omelets,_ Ness thought. _Haha, of course._

"Oh, hello, Ness!" Hinawa said cheerfully.

Flint smiled at him. "I didn't think you'd be awake this early in the morning."

Ness smiled sheepishly. "Actually, something came up, so I woke up earlier than usual."

There were footsteps coming from the stairs, and Ness turned to look. Claus was walking down the steps with a groggy and sleepy Lucas following behind him. Lucas looked like he just got out of bed ("He did," Claus said. "I had to wake him up."), his eyes were half-lidded, and he was still in his pajamas.

"Here he is," Claus told Ness. "What did you want him for?"

"Actually, can I talk to all of you? There's something I need to tell you guys." Ness motioned for Claus and Lucas to sit with him at the dining table with Hinawa and Flint.

When everyone was seated, Ness took out the letter from Master Hand and began to read it out loud. As soon as he finished, he put it away.

"What is this Super Smash Bros. Tournament about?" Hinawa asked curiously.

"It's where fighters from around the world meet up and take place in battles." Hinawa gasped and Flint raised an eyebrow. "They don't get hurt," Ness continued. "Master Hand is… some sort of extraterrestrial being, I guess, who has this magical power to keep fighters from feeling any pain when they get hurt. I've been in the tournament ever since it began, and the other fighters there are really nice. It's not just fighting each other for fun, it's also making new friends and experiencing new things. Kind of like a school that only focuses on physical education."

"Sounds interesting…" Claus mused. His parents agreed.

"I was thinking about who I should bring with me," he paused to look at Lucas, "and I ended up deciding on Lucas."

All eyes turned to the blonde, who had his elbow on the table with his cheek resting in his hand. He yawned. "Sure," he said nonchalantly.

"Lucas, are you sure?" Hinawa gasped, not expecting her son to answer that easily. "I thought you would be afraid of going somewhere out of Tazmily, let alone leaving for a fighting tournament…" The addressed blonde merely shrugged.

"Wait," Claus interrupted. "I know my brother, and he wouldn't say yes to something like that without thinking about it first."

He passed his plate of an omelet to Lucas, who slowly picked up his fork and cut out a piece. As soon as the flavor reached his tongue, however, his eyes widened and he spat out tiny chunks of omelet across the whole table.

"WHAT," he screamed before momentarily choking on a piece that failed to come out of his mouth, "W-WHA, WHA… W-W-WHAT DID I JUST AGREE TO?"

"And he's back," Claus drawled and swiped away a piece of omelet that had landed on his cheek.

"Lucas, calm down," Ness said. "Like I said, you won't get hurt or feel any pain in battle. And take it from a veteran Smasher like me, everyone there is friendly!" _Well, mostly everyone..._

"But—"

"C'mon, Luke, you have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity being thrown at you, and you're just gonna toss it away?" Claus asked.

"I—"

"It will be a good experience for you to meet new people! Tazmily isn't a big village, so this is a good chance to make new friends!" Hinawa encouraged.

"Well—"

"Listen to me, Son." Flint was behind Lucas' chair and gripped his shoulders, surprising everyone. _When did he get there?_ Ness thought. Lucas slowly turned his head around to face him. "You have never been outside of the village other than visiting your grandpa. You realize that everyone has a calling, right? Well, this is yours. Why do you think you obtained your PSI? You don't use it other than to defend yourself from primitive animals in the forest, and boy, I've seen how talented you are with those powers. So don't let them go to waste. I expected Claus to be the one who left home before you, but there won't be any other chance besides this one. Go get stronger for us, Lucas. Go get stronger for yourself. It's time to _be a man_!"

Everyone's jaws were on the floor the whole time (including Boney's). Did Flint, cool and composed Flint, the Flint that Ness thought was _mute_ the first time he met him, just say all that? He wondered how the man was able to say that entire speech as if he was the president, without taking even one single, audible breath to pause.

"Yeah…" murmured a faint voice. Ness snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Lucas. "You're right, Dad. I can't stay in Tazmily forever. I need to go out…" He turned toward Claus and grinned. "And if getting out of the house before Claus is a bonus, I'll take it." Claus playfully rolled his eyes.

"Great!" Ness cheered. "But once you're in, there's no backing out. Are you sure?"

Lucas nodded, "I am."

Ness got out of his seat and walked up to Lucas, holding out the train ticket. Lucas gladly took it and the two smiled at each other. Boney ran to Lucas and barked up at him, like he was saying "Congratulations!" in dog speech. Now that Flint was done with his motivational speech, he coolly sat down on the couch in the living room as if nothing happened. Claus went to Lucas and put his hand on his shoulder, smiling at him. Hinawa kissed her son's forehead (to which the blonde blushed to).

When everyone was done congratulating Lucas, Ness spoke up. "The train will leave tomorrow morning at ten. I'll be here at around eight so we can spend a little more time with your family and board together, okay? Make sure you have everthing you want to bring ready, and wake up early!"

Lucas laughed softly, "Don't worry, I will. I'll see you tomorrow, Ness! Thanks for deciding to choose me!"

Ness left the house, and before he got ready to use PSI Teleport, he looked around for any stray trees.

* * *

><p>"I'm gonna miss you, Bro," Tracy said dejectedly, before giving Ness a hug. He returned it, using all his manly pride not to cry.<p>

"Be safe, Ness. Try not to get into any trouble while you're gone, okay?" Ness' mom said, kissing Ness' head.

"I won't." _Sorry, Mom, but I can't guarantee that…_

King looked up at his owner and whimpered. Ness knelt down and pet his white fur. "It'll be okay, boy. Don't miss me too much, okay?" The dog barked and licked his face.

Ness stood up and started to run forward. Before he teleported, he yelled behind him, "I'll see you guys in a year! I love you!" His family waved at him, and in a flash, he found himself in Tazmily Village Square again.

When he reached Lucas' house, Lucas, Claus, Hinawa, Flint, and Boney were already outside. Hinawa and Flint were checking Lucas' luggage in case he forgot anything, and Lucas and Claus were playing with Boney. Claus was the first to recognize Ness' presence, "Oh, hey, Ness!"

The black-haired boy grinned and ran to them. His gaze fell on Lucas' massive luggage. "We're not going overseas, Lucas. Why are you bringing so much?"

"For extra underwear!" Hinawa chirped a few feet away. Lucas blushed furiously. Ness had to bite his lip to prevent himself from laughing. Claus, on the other hand, didn't bother to contain his laughter and doubled over. Lucas didn't know whether he was angrier at his mom or his brother.

Once Claus stopped laughing, he said to Ness, "Our family already said our goodbyes to Lucas, so you wouldn't have to waste time watching sappy family moments like in those cheesy romance movies." Ness laughed and checked his watch for the time. It was 8:10 AM.

Lucas' family and Ness spent some time outside together until 9:30. By that time, a familiar voice suddenly called out Ness' name. Ness turned to the source of the voice, and saw Paula running to him. She stopped just in front of him, panting for air.

"Paula?" Ness said. "What are you doing here? I told you, Poo and Jeff that I would be leaving today…"

"I just got your letter just about an hour ago…" She paused to look at him with pleading blue eyes. "You're leaving again…?"

Ness couldn't think of what to say to a cute face like that. "Paula…"

She shook her head and smiled, "I'm not mad, it's just that I thought you knew me well enough by now that I prefer being told goodbye by actions, not words."

_Whoa! What does she mean by that?_ Before Ness had time to think about it more, Paula pulled him into a compassionate hug. _Oh, okay. You scared me for a second there, Paula._ Ness closed his eyes and returned the hug. Claus and Lucas were watching from a few feet away. Claus put his fingers into his mouth and wolf-whistled at the two, causing Lucas to slap his arm. But Ness didn't hear it, because he was lost in his own little world.

"LUCAS!"

Ness and Paula broke out of the hug when they heard the voice. Ness looked over to Lucas and Claus, who were visibly—even with his distance away from the two—shivering in fear. The older of the twins spoke up, "I thought you told her!"

"I did!"

A pink-haired girl, somewhere around her teens, came marching up to Lucas, who gripped the front of his shirt and started shaking him violently, "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOU WERE LEAVING?"

"I-I did!"

"…I know."

"H-Huh?"

She let go of his shirt and pulled him into a hug so tight it looked like it hurt, "I know you did, silly! I just wanted to give you one last hug before you left!"

Ness and Paula walked over to Claus, and he whispered to the orange-haired boy, "Who's that?"

"Kumatora. She's one of Lucas' best friends. But she can be a little rough sometimes…"

"A _little_?" Lucas squeaked.

Kumatora released Lucas (who started gasping for air) and grinned at him. "There. I wasn't letting you leave until I did that."

"You're not mad?" Lucas asked.

"Nope! In fact, I was wondering when the heck you were going to get out of this pea-sized village. I mean, it had to be eventually, right? So no, I'm not mad… more like proud."

The blonde smiled at her. "Thank you. I'm glad you came before I left." She grinned back at him.

"Uh, Ness?" Claus said, breaking the silence. "Didn't you say that the train leaves at ten?"

"Yeah, why?"

"It's 9:55."

Ness quickly grabbed Lucas' luggage and the blonde himself, and prepared to use PSI teleport. Lucas quickly said goodbye to his parents, Claus and Kumatora, and Ness to Paula.

"Okay, let's goooo! PSI—"

"TREE!"

* * *

><p><strong>Kai: The end cracks me up every time.<strong>

**Mato: It seems like the main villain of this chapter is the evil tree attempting at keeping Ness and Lucas from getting to their train ride on time. :L**

**Kai: AHAHA, even though we meant for it to be Paula and Kumatora. Oh, right, we should explain anything that might confuse the readers who have never played Mother 2 or 3. For those of you who don't want to know or already know, just skip to the bottom!**

**Tracy — Ness' little sister. She's grumpy in the morning, but not as much as we emphasize her as. (Mato: She's also working a part time job at a place call Escargon Express where she keeps track of things Ness kept in storage during his adventure.)**

**Ness' parents — Ness' mom doesn't have an official name (Mato: I suspect it to be Ana from Mother 1 for those who have watch/played it. You know what I mean. ;D), hence why we always refer to her as their mom, Ness' mom or Tracy's mom. And Ness' dad doesn't make an appearance because he's just a phone. (Mato: Not really. You just talk to him through the phone to save and know how much experience is need to level up but NEVER see him T ^ T)**

**Pokey — Yes, this is Porky from SSBB. He's Ness' next door neighbor and thinks of Ness as his best friend, which is why in this sentence: **Getting a closer look, the boy just noticed the hammer in his "friend's" hand. **The word "friend's" is in quotation marks. They call him Porky in Brawl either because of a mistranslation… or because he's fat. (Mato: I personally hate this kid. And I'm pretty sure Kai does too. He's so annoying. -_-') I do. Don't worry.**

**King — Ness' dog. Although he's not important to the story of Mother 2, he is like an EXACT polar opposite to Lucas' dog, Boney. Unlike Boney, King is very fearful and doesn't do things without motivation. Kinda like Scooby Doo :P (Kai: And Boney's brown!) I forgot that. :O**

**Paula — One of the people that travels with Ness during the events of M2. Like Ness, Paula can use PSI and is said to have taught Ness PSI Fire and PSI Thunder for Brawl. During the game, Paula is very important because she has a special ability that will be major to the game's end. It is implied at the end of the game Ness and Paula start dating after saving the world. (Kai: Dawwww 33)**

**Poo and Jeff — The other people Ness and Paula travel with during M2. Poo is the prince of a far off land (of what I say is Asia) and could use PSI powers like Ness and Paula. It is said he taught Ness PK Starstorm, which is Ness' final smash in Brawl. (Kai: I wonder how Ness fans would take it if they find out that he was taught PK Starstorm by someone named Poo…) Jeff is an ingenious student and is the only person in the group to not know how to use PSI powers. Although he doesn't know PSI, Jeff—depending on how much you built up his IQ—is able to fix up items the team finds during the journey overnight. (Kai: Jeff is an Assist Trophy. He's the kid with glasses who uses the bottle rocket, which are like homing missiles. They follow the other players around.) Ironically, even though Jeff doesn't use PSI, you can purchase an item called "Multiple Bottle Rockets" which does the strongest damage to ANY enemy in the game.**

**Claus — Lucas' older twin brother. Something happens to him in Mother 3, but I don't want to spoil anything, so we didn't include the events of Mother 3 in our story. Lucas knows Porky, but since M3's plot doesn't exist here, he only knows him from what Ness tells him.**

**Hinawa and Flint — Hinawa is Lucas' mom and Flint is Lucas' dad. Hinawa cooks omelets for her sons, and Flint is the quiet type of parent, which is why everyone was surprised when he gave Lucas that long speech at the table.**

**Boney — Lucas' dog. He's like the opposite of King, being brave and all. He's one of Lucas' party members in his game.**

**Kumatora — She's like my favorite M3 character. Kumatora is robust, and she's one of Lucas' party members, too. She can use PSI just like him. It was SO fun making her talk. (Mato: She's so cool and confident, I admire her. oWo)**

**PSI Teleport — Have any of you wondered why Ness' entrance in Brawl is him coming in burned? It's because of PSI Teleport. This is a move in Earthbound that does what its name implies. In the original game, Ness has to get a running start in order to teleport somewhere else, but if, say, he bumps into a tree, he gets burned. That's why he's cautious for any trees that might stop him while trying to teleport. (Mato: Poo also knows this move. But his PSI Teleport is more advanced.)**

**Omelets and Steak — Omelets are Lucas' and Claus' favorite food. (Mato: Steak is Ness' favorite food. Which is self-explained here: **It was now 7:00 AM, and Ness, Tracy, their mom, and King were all eating breakfast around the dining table. Everyone was eating steak, including King.** Yes they're eating steak for breakfast. So? xP) That's why Ness was having that dream about "Steak-chan," as he so eloquently calls her. What he was doing with her is up to you to interpret. (Mato: Anyone want to guess what I interpret? xD)**

**Kai: WOW, that's long.**

**Mato: It was fun though. I would've added something about a guy named Tony but he isn't important in this story.**

**Kai: That being said, I promise you that the next chapter will be about Brawl and only Brawl. Just to foreshadow a little bit, Ness and Lucas meet Luigi and Red, and the four of them will become good friends. (Mato: And there might be talk about luggage ammount. o v o)**

**Mato: So. Next time on—**

**Kai: Are you trying to be Chuggaaconroy?**

**Mato: YESSSSS! That guy's FRICK'N AWESOME! XD**

**Kai: Yes, he is. :]**

**Mato: So. Next time on A PK Smashing Experience—get ready to reunite with some of our favorite Brawl characters. See you guys then. *insert awesome music of Brawl here*. (Kai: *COUGH*FINALDESTINATION*COUGH*)**


	2. Of Smashers, Stories and Giant Hands

**Kai: Holy smokes, this chapter was a lot longer than I expected it to be…**

**Mato: We didn't even know what to write about… how did this happen?**

**Kai: Haha, well, I'm proud of it anyway. Thanks for those of you who are actually reading and reviewing our story! You motivated me to stop procrastinating and start focusing on the story for once. Although, I can't guarantee that the next chapter will come out as fast as this one did.**

**Mato: Yeah and we all know how long we've been putting THIS off.**

**Kai: Now pay close attention to this chapter, because there is an **_**insane**_** amount of foreshadowing. And, there's a big reference to Paper Mario 2 and a small reference to Luigi's Mansion, for any fans who have played them.**

**Mato: We wanted to make a chapter to introduce main characters of this story so we made up the travel towards Smash Mansion. Although, not **_**all **_**the characters were introduced. No that would make the story boring. :L**

**Kai: Mhmm. IkeXPit fans will also enjoy this chapter. I know I enjoyed writing it.**

**Mato: And I enjoyed laughing at all the typos we made. I'm rubbing off on you. - U -**

**Kai: No kidding! Once, instead of writing "spoken," I put "spokemon." How is that even **_**remotely**_** possible? I wasn't even thinking of anything Pokemon-related… Gee, you're a great influence.**

**Mato: Aren't I? I'm so nice. :D**

**Kai: AHAHAHAHAHAH. You're funny. NO, jk, jk.**

**Mato: Ignoring that, we forgot to put a disclaimer so I'll start it off.**

**WE DON'T OWN ANY OF THESE CHARACTERS. IF I DID I WOULD HAVE MADE AN EARTHBOUND REMAKE BY NOW.**

**Kai: Well, we **_**do**_** own Patricia, Wally and George… yeah, you'll find out who they are once you start reading. SSBB, PMTTYD, Luigi's Mansion and all their characters belong to Nintendo. Anyways, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

><p>"Let's see… Cabin 005… 005…" Ness muttered to himself. He was walking through a hallway on the moving Excess Express headed to Smash Mansion, trying to find his room. Him and had Lucas parted ways when they found the blonde's room a few minutes earlier, Cabin 008, which he was sharing with another newcomer named Red. He didn't get to stop and spend time chatting with Lucas and Red because he still had to find his own room, but Lucas told him that he would introduce Red to him as soon as they got off the train, as long as Ness did the same with his roommate.<p>

_Speaking of which, I wonder who my roommate is…_ the red-capped boy thought. He brought his attention back to finding his cabin. "Cabin 003, 004… Aha! 005!" He was glad to have found his room, but he was surprised to find Luigi pacing back and forth in front of his door. When the plumber had his back turned, Ness walked up to him and tapped his shoulder, making him jump. Luigi quickly turned around, and his eyes filled with relief when he realized it was only Ness.

"Hey, Luigi," Ness said, grinning. "It's good to see you again. Having trouble finding your room?"

"Hey-a, Ness," Luigi replied. Ness still remembered that heavy Italian accent. "It's good to see you, too. And no, actually. This _is_ my room."

"Really? Then how come you haven't put your stuff away yet?" he asked, pointing at the suitcase Luigi was holding.

"O-Oh, ah," he tried to explain, "I was anxious to know who my roommate would be, so I decided to stand out here and wait until they arrived…"

Ness laughed, "You're happy it wasn't someone like Ganondorf, huh?" Luigi nodded. "Well, you'll be glad to know that I'm going to be your roommate for this train trip."

Luigi looked like a toddler who had just gotten a lollipop for being a good boy at the doctor's. "Really?"

"Yup. So now that you know that your roommate isn't a fat and murderous Gerudo, let's start unpacking!" Ness said animatedly, inserting the key he received for his cabin in the door's keyhole.

Luigi quickly whipped his head around the hallway, checking to see if anyone was there. He looked as if he had just seen a ghost. "Shhh, b-be careful! If he heard you say that about him, he would have choked you to death on the spot!"

Ness laughed and opened the door to their shared cabin, walking inside. _Same old Luigi_, he thought.

The cabin looked fancier than a normal train's. There was a bunk bed with green sheets and pillows in the corner, and a dresser with two compartments. A vase with colorful flowers ("Daisies!" Luigi pointed out.) was placed on top of the dresser. On the opposite corner of the bed was a couch which was able to seat two people. Next to the couch was a window with dark green curtains. Finally, there was a desk to the left of the entrance with a green lamp on top.

Luigi followed him in, and looked around the room in awe. "Wow," he said. "It's like this room was meant to fit me…"

Ness placed his backpack on the empty corner of the cabin, and Luigi did the same with his suitcase. The younger Mario brother started to unpack his things. Ness noticed the bed and asked, "Which bunk do you want?"

"The top," Luigi said quickly.

"Oh, okay. Why the top?"

"N-No reason."

Ness grinned. "If you say so…" His stomach suddenly growled.

Luigi stopped unpacking and turned to him. "What did you say?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry, that was my stomach," Ness said embarrassingly, scratching the back of his head. "I didn't eat breakfast this morning."

"How about we get some lunch? I'm kind of hungry, too."

Ness agreed, and the two walked out of their cabin. Conveniently, the door to the train's buffet was the first to their right. Once they walked in, they recognized a few of their fellow Smashers. Mario and Link were sitting at one table, Pikachu was perched on top of a toony version of Link's shoulder, who was eating with Zelda, and—not much to Ness' surprise—Kirby was walking around eating the other Smashers' leftovers. A dark blue masked Kirby followed him around, keeping the pink wonder at bay.

Ness and Luigi went to the small kitchen, where Peach was happily cooking meals for everyone. Upon seeing the PSI-user and the plumber, she said cheerfully, "Luigi, Ness, it's good to see you again!" and gave them each a tiny hug.

"You too, Peach," Ness replied, smiling. "What's there to eat?"

"Whatever you want!" the princess chirped. "Just name it, and I'll whip it up for you in a flash."

"Really?" he asked hopefully. "That's great! Well then, can I have a plate of Steak-ch… steak?"

She gave him a look, but said okay. "How about you, Luigi?" Before the plumber could say anything, she continued, "Oh wait, I know! How about a plate of spaghetti?"

Luigi's eyes lit up. "That would be great, thank you!"

Peach giggled, "Okay, you two go find a table. I'll give you your meals when they're ready."

The two nodded, and left the kitchen. They found a table next to an angel boy with white wings and a bluenette with a massive sword, who were talking animatedly about their past adventures. Once Ness and Luigi sat down, Ness started to talk, "That reminds me, we never really got to know each other. Tell me about some of your adventures!"

Luigi was slightly slumping in his chair, but then quickly straightened up. "Ooh, I have this really good one about my adventure to the Waffle Kingdom!"

"Waffle Kingdom?" Ness perked up. "Sounds interesting. Tell me about it!"

"Are you sure? It's a pretty long story…"

Ness smiled. "Let's hear it."

"Well… okay, if you insist." Luigi cleared his throat and began to talk. "I got a letter from this guy named Crepe, who claimed he was from the Waffle Kingdom. He said that their Princess Eclair was captured by the Chestnut King, so he wanted my help. Since Mario was gone at that time, I decided to go. When I got to the Waffle Kingdom, I met Minister Crepe, and he told me that there was this thing called the Marvelous Compass, which was broken up into seven pieces and scattered across the land. One of the parts was in the princess' tiara, so I figured out that I would find her eventually. The compass base I received pointed toward Rumblebump Volcano on the Pudding Continent, so that's where I had to go first.

"Once I got there, I headed straight to the volcano, but I had to go through jungles and all these vicious creatures. One time I was cornered, but a Blooper named Blooey came to my rescue, and he joined me in my travels. Once we got to the volcano, it was just like any other volcano, bubbling lava and all that jazz. Except this one was full of traps! There was this one that was a giant walking statue, and to beat it, we had to hit this red gem that was on its forehead. So I came up with a plan for Blooey to hit it. I was like, 'All you, man!' I waited for the right time and threw him up there, and it hit the statue's weak spot right on! It was—"

"Here's your food!"

Ness just realized he was dozing off and about to fall asleep. He quickly snapped out of it and looked at who addressed them.

Peach set the two plates on the table and winked at them before going back to the kitchen. Ness almost drooled upon seeing his steak. _Wow, this looks like it came straight out of a cookbook!_ Luigi had an identical look when he saw his spaghetti. He grabbed his fork and knife and began to cut out a piece.

Luigi held something out to him. Ness looked up, and saw that it was a book. "What's this?"

"The book that tells the rest of my adventures in the Waffle Kingdom." _The _rest_? That thing's hard cover!_ "Since I didn't get to finish telling you, or rather, barely started telling you (_BARELY STARTED?_), you can finish reading it here."

Ness took it with some difficulty and placed it next to his plate. "Uh, thanks, Luigi! I'll… try to read it when I have more time." _If there's ever _enough_ time…_

For the remainder of lunch, Ness and Luigi spent time telling their stories. Ness talked about how his "friend" Pokey turned evil, and Luigi told him that he became evil himself, calling himself Mr. L and how he had a robot partner named Brobot. A few minutes later, a familiar blonde and his roommate came up to them.

"Hi, Ness!" Lucas greeted him. "How have you been doing?"

"Oh, hey, Lucas! I've been doing great! How about you?"

"Good!" he chirped. "Really good, actually! I've already met so many people! I've met Ms. Peach, Mario, Link, Kirby, that blue-haired guy with the sword, and his angel boyfriend!"

"B-Boyfriend?" Ness asked incredulously. _So those two were dating…_ he thought. "I've never seen a gay couple before…" _Not unless you count Jeff and Tony…_ "What are their names?"

"Yup. At least, I think so… They were acting like a couple…" Lucas said. "I think the swordsman's name was Ike, and the angel's name was Pit. I didn't talk really talk to them, I just found out their names by listening to their conversation. So we really didn't get a chance to introduce ourselves…"

"Really? What happened?"

"Well…"

"_So what kind of Pokemon do you have?" Lucas asked Red, while walking past tables to get back to their cabin._

"_I only have three with me, since Master Hand wouldn't allow any more. I—"_

"_Wah!"_

_Red quickly turned to his friend, who was rubbing his nose. "What happened?"_

"_Oops," someone said next to them. The Pokemon Trainer looked at the table next to them, and saw a dark blue-haired swordsman who facepalmed, and a young angel boy who was smiling apologetically at Lucas. "Did my wings hit you?"_

"_Yes, but I'm okay," Lucas responded. He looked at his wings. "They felt so soft!"_

_The angel grinned at the swordsman. "See? Told you they were real."_

"_Fake wings can be soft, too."_

"_But I can move them naturally."_

"…"

"_Ha! I win," the angel taunted, sticking his tongue out._

"_Win _what_?"_

"_Another one of our pointless arguments!"_

_The swordsman sighed. "Fine. You win. But… your wings look rather sensitive, so be careful with them in battle. I don't want you getting hurt…" he muttered quietly, turning away. Lucas could have sworn he was blushing._

"_What?" the boy asked, leaning forward and cupping his ear, "I didn't catch that last part."_

_The man repeated his last sentence, but it came out quieter than the first time he said it._

"_Whaaaat?" he repeated, leaning in closer._

_The bluenette sighed angrily and harshly leaned back against his chair, crossing his arms. "I don't want you getting hurt, dammit! And knowing you, you'd probably be careless during battle and end up being the first one knocked out."_

"_Quit treating me like a kid, Ike," the angel moaned, slumping back into his seat. "You always act like you're my mom or something…"_

"_Okay. First of all," the swordsman called Ike started firmly, making sure he would get his point through his friend's thick skull, "I'm only treating you like a kid because you act like one. Secondly, if I _were _one of your parents, I would be the DAD, not the mom. And thirdly, I can't help it! I love and care about all my friends, Pit. I want to protect them and keep them safe. You're not the first to complain about me acting like a protective parent."_

_The angel named Pit stared at his friend, speechless. After a few seconds of silence, he said quietly, "Oh… r-really?" A light shade of pink tinted his cheeks._

"_Yeah," Ike said softly, smiling at him._

_Lucas turned around to see a man dressed in a black and gray suit that carried bombs, with some sort of headband wrapped around his forehead. His mouth was wide open and he gave a weird look at the two "friends."_

"_Uh…" Red spoke up, "I think we should get going now…"_

_Lucas silently agreed._

"And after that, we just went back to our cabin," Lucas finished explaining his flashback.

"You should've stayed longer!" Ness complained. "They could've kissed or something!"

"Uh… why would you care?"

"W-Well," Ness stammered, trying to think of an excuse. _What am I supposed to say? "Oh, truth be told, I'm actually a HUGE fan of yaoi!" …Is it weird that I know that term?_

"And besides," Lucas continued, "I only said it _seemed_ like they were dating. But it's hard to tell if Pit was flirting with Ike or not, or if he was just teasing him… So… are they together or not? This is making my head hurt…"

_I'll remember those two, _Ness thought. _When I get a chance to chat with them, I'll make sure to ask them about their relationship…_

"Well," Red spoke for the first time in this conversation, startling everybody. "Ike _did_ mention that Pit was his friend…"

"Oh, we didn't get a chance to properly introduce ourselves, huh?" Ness said. "I'm Ness, and this is Luigi." He stuck out one hand for Red to shake, and used the other to point at Luigi. "We've been in the Super Smash Bros. Tournament ever since the very beginning."

"I'm Red," he introduced himself, shaking Ness' hand. "It's good to meet you two. I'm assuming you already know Lucas, huh?"

"Haha, yeah. We've been friends long before we came here," Ness said.

"It's nice to meet you, Luigi," Lucas said, smiling at the plumber. Luigi smiled back.

Lucas and Red sat down with Ness and Luigi, and the four of them talked about various things, all the way to dinnertime. They decided to have dinner together; Ness got his usual steak, Lucas asked Peach to make him an omelet (she was confused, but didn't question him), and Luigi ordered a pizza for him and Red to share. Over the span of dinnertime, the group of four became relatively close, and knew almost everything about each other (minus Luigi's adventures to the Waffle Kingdom; Ness stopped him before he could start. But he _did_ talk about fighting ghosts in a haunted mansion). When everybody was done eating, they said goodnight and parted ways into their cabins.

* * *

><p>"Luigi, I'm bored," Ness groaned. He was lying down on his back at the top of the bunk bed. Luigi was at the desk reading a book. <em>Probably his published book<em>, Ness presumed.

Closing what he was reading, Luigi replied, "It's 11 o' clock at night. What else are we supposed to do besides sleep?"

"Let's explore the train!"

"W-What?" Luigi asked shakily. "Why?"

"I have nothing better to do!"

"I-I'm good, you can go ahead."

Ness sighed, "If you say so. I'll just go by myself, then."

"Be careful…"

Ness got out of his bed and slowly walked out of the room. He decided to see what was at the back of the train and went through the door leading to the buffet. On the way, he saw a figure in the kitchen rummaging through the cabinets. He moved closer to it, and realized that it was…

"Mario?" he asked.

The plumber quickly turned around. "Ness? What are you doing here at this time of night?"

He shrugged. "Eh, I had nothing else to do, so I came out here. What are _you_ doing here?"

"Oh, uh," Mario tried to explain. Ness noticed the box of uncooked spaghetti strands in one hand, and a bottle of tomato sauce in the other. He also noticed that he wasn't wearing his hat.

"Yeah, you don't have to explain. I already got it," Ness said. "And don't worry, I won't tell Peach." Mario breathed a sigh of relief. "_If_," he quickly added.

"If… what?

"If you tell me something interesting about this stupid train. There's nothing to do, and I can't sleep!"

Mario looked hesitant at first, but then motioned for Ness to come closer, as if he was about to tell him a big secret. Ness leaned in. "Okay, I'll tell you something. But you better promise not to tell _anyone_ about this, okay?"

"Deal."

"I've been on this train before."

"…So?"

"I wasn't finished. On this train, there's always been one vacant room. No one was allowed to rent it out."

"Really?" Ness asked, now interested. "Why's that?"

"Let's just say, it was reserved…"

"But you said that no one was allowed to rent it…"

"Because that person is already residing in it."

"Wait…" Ness said, making sure his deductions were correct. He looked around, to see if anyone else was listening, before asking, "Are you saying that there's a _ghost_ in that room?"

"Bingo."

"No way… How did you find out?"

"I've had a past adventure on this exact same train a few years ago," Mario said. "It was around this time of night, and my partner and I had a chat with the conductor. He said that there were supposed to be a certain amount of blankets on the train, one for each passenger, including himself… but his was missing. That meant a stowaway was onboard. So I decided to do a little investigating, and eventually we came across a room that was empty. Or at least, it seemed empty…"

Ness shuddered a bit. Mario continued, "My partner had an ability to keep us from being seen, so she hid us in the shadows for a while, and a ghostly figure suddenly appeared in the middle of the room…"

"What happened next?" Ness asked eagerly.

"We decided to have a little talk with the ghost, so we came out of our hiding spot. He was surprised to see us, but he stayed put. He said the conductor left a blanket for him, not realizing he was a ghost. Anyways, in order to get his blanket, we had to fetch him his old diary from the baggage car. I didn't bother reading it, because in his exact same words, he said, '_Because if you do… Hoo hoo hoooooo… A horrible fate awaits you_.'" Mario made weird gestures with his hands to add to the suspense.

"What was his cabin number?" Ness asked, about to collapse from the anxiety.

"…004…"

_004… Wait, that's the cabin right next to mine!_ The PSI-user jumped up and down a few times in happiness, then started to run back to his cabin. "Thanks, Mario!"

"Uh… you're welcome?" Mario said, confused. Then he added quickly, "Hey! Remember, _don't tell anybody_!"

* * *

><p>"LUIGI!"<p>

Ness rammed into the door to Cabin 005 and quickly climbed up the ladder to his friend's bunk, shaking him furiously. "Wake up! I've got great news!"

"Are we there yet…?" Luigi asked lazily, blinking his eyes.

"No, but I found out something we can do!"

He sighed, "What?"

"We're gonna meet a ghost!"

Luigi immediately sat up and looked at Ness as if he grew a second head. "Wha— Are you CRAZY? I thought I told you that I have a huge fear of ghosts!"

"But I'm _bored_! And you said you fought them, right? So if the ghost tries to attack or something, you can use your vacuum to suck it up!"

"…Oh, fine… But you're doing all the talking. I want no part in this whatsoever, understand?"

"Great! Let's get going!" Ness said eagerly, jumping off the ladder and running out into the hallway. Luigi slowly got out of bed and took out his Poltergust 3000 from his suitcase, then followed Ness out into the hallway. Ness looked at the cabin next to theirs: Cabin 004. He walked over to it and slowly placed his hand on the knob, opening it with an eerie _creak_.

"Wait," Luigi piped up. "There was a g-ghost next door this whole time, and we didn't even notice?"

Ness nodded and carefully stuck his head in the room before he crept in. Luigi followed him, shivering from head to toe. They closed the door and took some time to look around the room. It looked exactly the same as their cabin, only mirrored. Oddly, all the lights were turned on…

"I-I don't think this is a g-good idea, N-Ness…"

"Don't worry, we have our secret weapon, remember?" he assured him. "Now let's hide somewhere…" he whispered.

Ness climbed in the empty bottom bunk, and Luigi slid under the covers of the top. They both closed the curtains and waited for any change in the room.

"W-What are we w-waiting for?" Luigi whispered.

"Just wait…" Ness whispered back, peeking through a tiny opening in the curtains.

A few seconds of deafening silence later, a transparent figure slowly materialized in the middle of the room, just as Mario had said.

"He's here…" Ness muttered to himself and Luigi. He could hear Luigi whimper in the covers of the sheets. _What is that rattling sound… Is that his teeth?_

"Aha!" Ness yelled, jumping out of his hiding place. "So there _is_ a ghost here!"

The ghost turned around, surprised. "_…So you've found me._" He was a toad. And just like any other toad, he had a weird mushroom-shaped cap and vest. His cap was gray with yellow circles, and his vest was gray. He didn't have any visible feet.

"Thank you _so much_ for showing yourself!" Ness burst out, surprising the ghost again. "I couldn't sleep, so I wanted to find something to do." He sat down on the carpet, staring up at him with big eyes. "So, tell me about yourself."

"_Er… okay…_" the toad said unsurely. "_Well, if it wasn't obvious enough, I'm a ghost. I passed away on this train many years ago._"

"Really? How'd you die? How old were you? Can I see your diary?"

"_Uh… Yes, poison, it's been too long to remember, and how do you know about that?_" The last phrase was spoken a bit angrily.

"Poison? What kinda poison? And really? You must've been old. Oh, and about your diary, a friend told me!" Ness said, enjoying himself.

"…_Again, I'm too old to remember._" The ghost sighed. "_A friend?_" He looked around and noticed Luigi on his top bunk. "_You! Mario, was it? How dare you tell another being about our past rendezvous!_" The plumber cowered more into the bed, his whimpers muffled by the pillow that covered his face.

"Oh, that's not Mario," Ness explained to him. "That's his younger twin brother, Luigi. Mario's somewhere else on this train."

"_…So in other words, he still told you._"

"Yup… Oh wait, was I not supposed to say that?"

The ghost sighed, "_Is there anything else you want?_"

"Hmm… I still haven't read your diary!"

"_You wouldn't dare…_" he threatened. "_You read it, and you might end up becoming a spirit like me…_"

"U-Um…" Luigi said shakily, now sitting up, "Maybe you shouldn't do this… I think he's serious…"

"Well, we won't become spirits like you anytime soon, because we have a secret weapon! Show him, Luigi!"

"…What was the weapon again?"

Ness facepalmed, "The one on your back!"

Luigi looked behind him, and saw the Poltergust 3000 attached to his back. "O-Oh! Right!" He flashed the nozzle at the ghost. "I-If you don't l-let us read your diary, you'll g-get sucked into this and… we'll turn you into a painting!"

The ghost held his hands up, "_Okay, okay, you can read it… But just the last entry. The rest are rather pointless and embarrassing…_" he said. "_It's on top of the drawer._"

Ness walked over to get it, and Luigi climbed down the ladder and followed him. "Just the last entry?" The ghost nodded. He opened the small diary and flipped through the pages until he found the one he was looking for. Along with Luigi, he began to read it in his head.

_Month X Day X Rainy_

_I just got my morning coffee. It tastes a little different than it usually does… Did they try out new ingredients? Well, I won't mind it. Anyway, I plan to propose to Patricia tonight at the train's buffet. Yes, it sounds lame, but there's not much to work with when you're stuck on a train for three more days. I can't wait any longer, because that oaf Wally might propose to her first._

_Ah, I have to go for a bit. George is calling me, he said that the jewelry store is open now. He's going to help me pick out a ring for my beloved Patricia. I'll be gone for about ten minutes._

_I'm back, and George and I picked out the perfect ring. It's a 2-carot diamond ring in the shape of a snowflake. I remember when we used to try and catch snowflakes when we were still little children…_

_Hold on, I'm feeling a little dizzy… and my stomach is churning…_

…

_My uisIon is qettimg blvrry… I tnink Im quIng tO pass Out_

_P A T R I C I A_

Ness quickly slammed the diary shut and placed it back on top of drawer. He turned away from Luigi and the ghost, covering his face with his hands.

"_What's wrong?_" the ghost asked him.

Ness sniffled, "I don't want to get my tears on your diary… That was so sad…!"

"Sad?" Luigi asked in disbelief. "That was _creepy_!"

He whirled around to face him. "_Creepy?_ Explain to me how dying before getting a chance to propose to your loved one is more creepy than sad!"

"But it's creepy how he was able to write her name without messing up when he was on the brink of death, and the way one of the lines on the last A just goes down in a long, straight line…"

"That's _love_, man! The power of LOVE!"

The toad sighed, "_Okay, okay, I showed you my diary. What more do you want?_"

"No, that's all. Thanks for keeping me entertained," Ness told him, smiling.

"_Hoo hoo hooooo… Good. Now GET OUT!_"

"You heard him, let's get out of here already!" Luigi cried, running out of the room.

After saying goodbye to the ghost, Ness and Luigi were back in Cabin 005. This time, Ness was able to fall asleep easily, drifting off into slumber until the next morning.

* * *

><p>"NESS!"<p>

This time it was Luigi's turn to wake up Ness in the same way that he did to him.

"Are we there yet…?" he asked groggily, rubbing his eyes in the same fashion Luigi had the other night.

"Actually, yes! The train engineer just announced that we would be arriving at Smash Mansion soon!"

"Finally!" Ness cheered. He quickly sat up and ran to his backpack to get his clothes. After, he jumped back into his bed and closed the curtains so that he could change. He emerged from the tiny space in a fresh layer of clothing a few seconds later, putting his signature baseball cap over his head.

"Oh yeah, by the way… Who's 'Steak-chan'?" Luigi asked in curiosity.

Ness blushed. "Uh… No one you need to know."

"Really? Because you were muttering 'Steak-chan' in your sleep last night…"

"Really, just trust me. You'd be better off not knowing, anyway," he said, laughing awkwardly.

Before Luigi could say anything, the two felt the Excess Express slowly start to grind to a halt. "All passengers on board, please head to the nearest exit. We have arrived at your destination. Thank you for joining us and we hope to see you again," the intercom announced.

The two made sure they had everything before leaving their cabin. Since the exit was near them, they were one of the first ones out.

It was a sunny day, perfect for the first day at the third annual Super Smash Bros. Tournament—also known as Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Their surroundings looked very fancy, just like the Excess Express' interior. The path to the mansion was surrounded by loads of green. The grass looked fresh, and different types of flowers ("More daisies!" Luigi pointed out again.) were in full bloom atop some patches.

There were trimmed hedges of the four main fighters—Mario, Link, Pikachu, and Kirby—and the founders of the tournament—Master Hand and Crazy Hand—on the sides of the path. But what really caught Ness' attention was how much bigger the mansion had gotten over the years. It was equivalent to the size of Luigi's mansion.

"Ness, Luigi!"

The two turned around to see Lucas and Red running up to them. "Oh, hey, guys!"

"Man, that train ride made it seem like it took days to get here," Red complained. Lucas agreed with him.

"Don't worry, it felt like that for me, too," Luigi said.

Ness noticed that Mario and Peach were walking together, a little ahead of him and the others. "Hey, Mario!" Hearing his name, the plumber stopped and turned around. "Yes?"

Ness ran toward them. "Thanks for telling me about that ghost story! Reading his diary cured me of my boredom!"

"Wait, what?" Mario asked disbelievingly. "You read his diary and _lived_?"

"Yeah! He let us! He was actually nicer than I thought…"

"Huh? He _let_ you? I'm so confused…"

"Yup! Thanks again!" He ran back to Lucas, Red and Luigi, waving at Mario and Peach. Mario stared at him, dumbfounded. Peach simply tilted her head in confusion.

"What did you say to Mario?" Lucas asked.

"You wouldn't want to know, trust me. It'll creep you out."

"Okay…"

The four of them walked into the huge mansion, where they were told by a crazy-looking hand holding a megaphone to head to the auditorium ("WHICH IS DOWNSTAIRS TO YOUR RIGHT!"). As soon as all the Smashers were assembled, a large white gloved hand floated to the podium on the stage.

"Welcome, participants of Super Smash Bros. Brawl!" the hand said into the microphone. "For newcomers who are not familiar with me, I am Master Hand, one of the founders of this tournament."

"AND I'M CRAZY HAND!" another gloved hand suddenly screamed, taking the stage with Master Hand. _He looks like he's been on too much caffeine…_ Ness thought. _…If that even makes sense…_

"Yes, yes, that was kind of obvious," Master Hand said, pushing the other to the side. "As you all may know, some of you have been invited here by friends, or by Crazy and I ourselves."

"BECAUSE YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!"

"Crazy, please…" the right hand sighed. "I thought we agreed to let me do all the talking."

"OH COME ON, BRO, YOU KNOW ME! I CAN'T AGREE TO ANYTHING! AND BESIDES, I _LOVE_ TALKING!"

"I know… I'm surprised your vocal chords haven't given up on you yet. Anyways, I'd just like to thank you all for being patient during your ride in the train that took you here. I've received complaints in the past about it taking a while to get here…" Crazy Hand was about to talk, no, _scream_ again, but Master Hand flicked him away. "The roommates you stayed with on the train ride will also be your dorm mates during your time here."

Two loud "NO!"'s erupted from the back of the auditorium. Everybody turned around to see a blue hedgehog and a mercenary clad in gray armor and bombs glaring at Master Hand, and then at each other.

"Hey," Red mumbled to Lucas, "isn't that the guy we saw staring at Ike and Pit at the buffet?"

"I think it is," the blonde responded.

"Sorry, but complaints will not be tolerated," Master Hand said firmly. "Your rooms have already been planned out, so it's too late to change anything." The hedgehog and the mercenary 'hmph'ed and childishly flicked their heads the other way. Master Hand sighed and continued, "Starting tomorrow, you will be able to plan matches against other Smashers in the Brawl Room as long as you follow the rules, which are posted up on the wall there for your convenience. And… I guess that's about it!"

Multiple sighs of relief were heard throughout the room.

"HEY!" The double doors leading to the auditorium suddenly slammed open, revealing Crazy Hand. "DON'T FORGET TO GIVE THEM THEIR DORM KEYS!"

"I was getting to that—"

"NOT FAST ENOUGH!" the left hand quickly floated up to the back of the stage and came out with a small case. Inside of it was—

"HERE'S THE KEYS!" he yelled, roughly slamming the case down on the podium. "EVERYONE'S KEYS HAS THEIR NAME AND SYMBOL ON IT, SO YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO FIND YOURS WITHOUT ANY TROUBLE! OH, AND YOU HAVE THE ENTIRE DAY TO DO WHATEVER YOU WANT EXCEPT FOR SCHEDULE ANY BRAWLS, BECAUSE WE'RE SAVING THAT FOR TOMORROW! GO EXPLORE THE MANSION OR SOMETHING! THANKS AND HAVE FUN!" Crazy Hand pushed Master Hand out of the room, and followed after him.

The Smashers stared at each other, wondering what the heck just happened and what they should do next. Mario was the first to get up and say loud enough for everyone to hear, "I think it would be best if we all lined up in a single-file—"

The blue hedgehog suddenly ran up on the stage and took two keys from the case. He held one of them up, waving it around teasingly. "Hey, Snake! Unless you want to sleep outside the mansion without a dorm to stay in, you better catch me!" he taunted, running out of the auditorium.

"You little—! Give me my damn key, or I'll slit your neck when I catch up to you! Er, wait…" the mercenary corrected himself, "Does he even have a neck…? I'll just… cut your quills off!" He then ran out of the room as well to chase after him.

After a few moments of silence, Mario tried again, "…Like I was saying, we should all line up in a single-file line so this process would go a lot smoother." Many people agreed with him, and everyone started to line up. Ness, Luigi, Lucas, and Red all stood next to each other in the line.

_Out of all the years I've been here_, Ness thought, smiling, _this year will be, without a doubt, the most memorable of them all._

* * *

><p><strong>Mato: I love how this chapter came out. Especially Luigi's adventure to the Waffle Kingdom. Ovo<strong>

**Kai: Me too! Don't worry, Luigi. I was interested in your story. And I felt really bad for writing that diary entry ]:**

**Mato: I KNOW! We're such jerks sometimes. D:**

**Kai: Poor ghost. And IkeXPit OMG. It's up to you guys to determine whether they're in a relationship or not. I mean, best friends can act like that… right? One more thing, Steak-chan will be a running gag in this story. There won't be a chapter without her at least being mentioned once.**

**Mato: So can we consider Steak-chan a main character? Anyways Ness being a secret yaoi fan makes me laugh because imagining Ness thinking about makes me laugh.**

**Kai: Eh, I wouldn't say that… we don't even know how she looks like. And a steak with legs doesn't seem very attractive.**

**Mato: Oh and I got to mention Tony in this chapter. YESSSSSSSSS! XD Tony is Jeff's roommate at the boarding school. It is very, Very, VERY much implied that he's gay for Jeff. But it isn't revealed if Jeff… feels the same.**

**Kai: HERE'S A RANDOM FACT: Birdo's gay for Yoshi. Yes, Birdo is a guy. Okay, Mato, you can end this author's note and chapter right here. Oh, and don't copy Chugga this time.**

**Mato: DDD: NO FUN! Any ways thanks for reading. Make sure to review for faster updates! …Can I say "see you guys then"? **

**Kai: …Sure…**

**Mato: SEE YOU GUYS THEN!. :)**


	3. Sibling Rivalry

**Mato: CHAAAAAAAAAPTEEEEEEEEEER 3!**

**Kai: Finally! After more than 2 weeks, we finally got it up!**

**Mato: So sorry we couldn't upload. We hardly saw each other over the last 2 weeks. Because of my PARENTS!**

**Kai: Plus, I had to read 3 books for summer homework. And we couldn't play Brawl for ideas because my Wii can't read discs right now ]:**

**Mato: And we don't go to my house because of how boring it is there. ALL I HAVE IS A GAMECUBE! Q A Q**

**Kai: But Gamecubes are AWESOME! ;D**

**Mato: So for the wait we gave you guys a treat. A slightly longer chapter to read! *throws confetti***

**Kai: Yay! Oh, so we're going to get tired of putting a disclaimer every chapter, so we'll do it one last time.**

**Dangerous Bunnies: We don't own SSBB, Nintendo does. Please don't torture us with having to say this again. Thank you.**

**Mato: We should shut up now huh?**

**Kai: Yeah. At this rate, the author's note is going to be a page long!**

**Mato: Like Chapter 1.**

**Kai: Yeah. Like Chapter 1. Okay, we should REALLY shut up now. Enjoy the chapter!**

**Mato: Oh! And read the Author's Note at the bottom. It is semi-important! (I got the last saying ;D)**

* * *

><p><em>Dear Tracy,<em>

_It's been one week since I arrived here at Smash Mansion (which by the way, turned super HUGE since the last tournament), and I've made a few new friends. Everyone's still friendly to each other… well, except two. One is this man who wears a heavy-looking suit and uses pretty much only bombs to fight. The other is a blue hedgehog who wears only gloves, shoes and socks, and runs way faster than King when he saw Pokey dancing to Lady Gaga. Anyway, other than them, there's been no other fighting other than the brawls._

Ness was only one-fourth done with rereading his letter when he bumped into Lucas in the hallway.

"Ah! Sorry— oh, hi, Ness!" the blonde said happily.

Ness grinned. "Hey, Lucas." He noticed something in his friend's hand. Pointing to it, he asked, "What do you have there?"

"Oh, this?" Lucas held up his hand to reveal an envelope. "Just a letter I was writing to Claus. I was going to ask Master Hand if he could send it to him for me. He could do that, right?"

Ness nodded. "Yup, he can. And a letter to Claus? What did you write about?"

"I just told him about our new friends, Red and Luigi, and how much I'm enjoying myself here," he said, smiling.

"Really? That's great! I'm actually about to head to Master Hand to send my letter I wrote to Tracy," Ness informed, grinning back.

"Really? What did you—"

"_Figlio di una cagna!" _(1)

"_Idiota! Hai appena chiamato Mamma una cagna!" _(2)

The two PSI-users jumped. "What was that?" Ness asked.

"I think it came from the other side of the hallway…"

Ness and Lucas tiptoed to the crook of the hallway and cautiously arched their heads around the corner. It turned out to be Mario and Luigi, who were presumably the ones yelling. The moment they looked at the scene, however, the brothers turned away from each other and Mario started stomping off in their direction. Lucas squeaked and yanked Ness back, and the red plumber angrily passed by them, not even noticing their presence.

After a few seconds, they peered around the corner again. Luigi was still there, but with his back turned to them. Slowly, they made their way to him. Once they were a reasonable distance away, Ness called out to him. "Luigi?"

He didn't respond. Ness tried again, "Luigiii?"

The Italian plumber abruptly turned around, his hands balled up into fists at his sides, his teeth clenched, and his left eye twitching. The sight was so surprising Lucas squeaked again and hid behind Ness. _"What?"_

Ness flinched. "Uh… we heard you and Mario… fighting, I think. Did something happen?"

Luigi's intimidating glare turned into a soft and almost sorry expression. His hands and teeth unclenched, and he slumped slightly. "Oh, you saw that? It's nothing, really," he said, ending with a sigh.

Ness raised an eyebrow. "Okay, I don't speak Italian, but I don't think you two were having a friendly conversation."

Luigi sighed again. "It's just a little disagreement we had. We're brothers, and we tend to fight sometimes. Don't worry about it, we usually make up the next day or so, okay?"

"Oh, I understand," Lucas agreed, stepping beside Ness now that Luigi was back to normal. "Sometimes my brother Claus and I fight, too."

"Over omelets," Ness mumbled, earning him a playful punch from Lucas.

"At least my favorite food isn't my girlfriend," the blonde retorted.

"What do you mean by that?" Ness snapped, suddenly thinking about Paula. His cheeks colored a bit.

"What I mean is that you always mutter Steak-chan's name in your sleep! Don't think I can't hear it, you're practically screaming it—"

"Whoa, okay," Luigi interrupted. "We don't want another fight now, do we?"

The two broke up and laughed a little. "Sorry," Lucas said. "Believe it or not, we have this conversation almost every day."

"Sometimes it's about Steak-chan," Ness added. "Other times it's about Omelet—"

"_Okay_," Lucas said hastily. "Back to the matter at hand…"

Luigi gave them a strange look. "Huh?"

"You don't need to know!"

"…Okay… Anyway, don't worry about it, okay?" Luigi assured them. "Just forget everything you saw a few minutes ago."

Ness and Lucas nodded as Luigi walked past them, leaving them alone in the hallway. After a few seconds of silence, Lucas turned to Ness. "So, let's go give our letters to Master Hand."

The black-haired boy nodded slowly as the two made their way to Master Hand's office.

* * *

><p>"Ma-ri-o! Ma-ri-o!"<p>

"Lu-i-gi! Lu-i-gi!"

"You can do it, Mario!"

"Yoshi yosh!"

Many cheers erupted from the inside of the Brawl Room. Ness, Lucas and Red were in a crowd of about twenty Smashers, all cheering for the Mario Bros. On screen was a time battle of Mario and Luigi versus Wario on Final Destination. There were thirty seconds left in the match, and if someone didn't die soon, they would go into sudden death.

"They shouldn't have turned on Friendly Fire," Red said. "They keep hitting each other!"

"But if they didn't, it would be too easy and unfair for Wario," Lucas responded.

"That's exactly why they should have turned it off…" the trainer muttered.

"Ten more seconds!" Ness exclaimed over the loud roars of the crowd.

On the screen, Wario picked up an Assist Trophy, and, coincidentally, came out Waluigi. Waluigi was able to stomp on Mario by the edge, and Wario saw his chance.

"Oh no…" Red mumbled. Ness and Lucas watched nervously.

"Five!" the announcer yelled out.

Wario went over to Mario to launch a Smash attack on him.

"Four!"

Luigi realized what Wario was doing, and ran to him and Mario.

"Three!"

Luigi readied a punch…

"Two!"

But it hit Mario instead, causing him to go to the other side of the stage.

"One!"

Wario's punch came intact with Luigi, sending him flying off the stage, resulting in a KO.

"GAME!"

Many _awws_ and _boos_ arose from the crowd (including some hoots from the villains).

"What happened?" Lucas asked. "It all went by so fast…"

Ness and Red didn't know what to say. They couldn't answer Lucas' question, because they themselves didn't quite understand what had happened, either.

Suddenly, the transporters beamed with light; Mario and Luigi appeared on one side, Wario on the other. Wario cackled to himself and pointed at the brothers before going to the villains on the other side of the packed room. Ness looked at Mario and Luigi—Luigi was struggling to explain what happened, and Mario seemed like he couldn't care less, marching ahead and away from his brother.

The two eventually stopped in the middle of the crowd. Since they were close, Ness was able to make out the words they were saying.

"It wasn't an accident—"

"Oh, so you hit me on purpose?"

"No, I didn't mean it like that!"

"Then what _did_ you mean?"

"If you'll just let me explain—"

"What is there to explain, Luigi?" Mario snapped, whirling around to face his brother. "That you're blaming _me_ because you aren't pulling your weight?"

The whole room's attention was now on them. Everyone stopped talking about the match and formed a large circle around the two.

"So, what, did you purposely punch me out of the way, thinking that you were confident enough to take on Wario yourself?" Mario went on. "We've been planning this match ever since the beginning of the tournament! I asked you to train! But apparently, you've been slacking off this entire week."

Mario closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. Luigi looked around, probably nervous that the all the attention was on them. He turned back to his brother, a pleading look in his eyes. "Mario, please—"

"No, just… forget about it." Mario lightly pushed his way through the crowd, murmuring a few _excuse me_'s as he did so. Everyone stared at him until he disappeared from sight into the hallway. An unbearable silence covered the atmosphere.

Ness looked at Luigi: his hat was covering his eyes, his head was downcast, and his arms were limp at his sides. All eyes were on him now. Ness bravely took a small step forward. "Luigi…?"

The plumber solemnly shook his head, his head never going up as he pushed through the crowd in a similar way Mario had. When he was gone, everyone said nothing; their eyes were either staring at their feet, at the ceiling, or at nothing in particular. No one wanted to talk in the heavy silence. All but one:

"HEH HEH! I WIN!"

Everybody's sympathetic stares turned into annoyed glares as they looked at who had broken the silence: Wario.

"What?" he asked. "Doesn't anyone care?"

Many different things flew at him all at once—a turnip, an egg, an ice block, a gyro, a diffused grenade, a ring, a needle, a Waddle Dee, a spike shaped like a shark tooth, and a Poké Ball. All Smashers started screaming, and many jumped at him. (3)

In the midst of all the chaos, Ness had gone to his and Luigi's shared dorm room.

* * *

><p>Once Ness was at his front door, he took a deep breath. He turned the knob and slowly opened the door.<p>

Luigi was sitting on a chair looking out the window, his head resting on his palm. Ness closed the door and approached him cautiously.

"Hey…" he said softly. When Luigi didn't respond, he sat on the edge of the sofa closest to him. "Are you okay? Mario said some pretty harsh things back there…"

"I'm okay, Ness," Luigi replied, adjusting his head so that he could face him. "Really. It's just Mario and I fighting again, that's all."

"It seemed more serious than brotherly fighting…"

The plumber didn't respond, and the two sat in silence for a while. Not an uncomfortable silence, but a soothing one.

"You know," Ness began, "I have a sibling, too. A sister. Her name is Tracy." He looked at Luigi to see if he was listening. His eyes were staring out the window again, but he had the feeling that he was. He continued, "She's _really_ annoying. There's never a day when we don't argue at least once. But no matter how angry we get, in the end, we still realize that we care for each other."

Luigi nodded twice, as if understanding what he was trying to say. Silence covered the air once again.

Ness really didn't know what to say. Sure, he had a sister, but… it was a _sister_. He assumed that they didn't argue in the same way, nor did they have a strong relationship as brothers would. Most of their arguments were over simple things—chores, what kinds of toys to buy, and arguments that formed over simple teasing. He couldn't truly relate to Luigi. But he had to try, for him.

"Can we just not talk about this?" Luigi asked wearily. "You go ahead and eat dinner without me. I'll be fine."

_Dinner?_ Ness looked at his watch. It was 6:00 PM. _Wow, we must have been here for a while…_

"Do you want me to bring something up here for you?"

"No, it's okay, I don't have much of an appetite tonight."

"…Okay." Ness got up from the sofa and walked to the door. He made a mental note to get Luigi something to eat, even if he said not to. It was the least he could do for him.

When Ness opened the door, he noticed Lucas standing at the side, staring at his hands. "Lucas?"

The blonde quickly looked up. "Oh, Ness! I was wondering when you would come out. It's time for dinner." He looked at the door. "Um… Is Luigi okay?"

"I tried comforting him, but it doesn't seem like he wants to talk just yet… maybe we should give him some space for now."

"Oh… okay then," Lucas said. "We should get dinner."

When the two came down to the dining room and got their food, they saw Red sitting at a table for three and sat down with him. They could hear chatter about the events that had happened a few hours ago.

"It's a good thing Luigi didn't come down here," Ness said, munching on his steak. "He wouldn't want to hear any of this…"

"Did either of you talk to him?" Red asked.

"I tried to talk to him earlier, but it's not easy. I don't know what it's like to have a brother," Ness answered.

"I have a brother," Lucas piped up, talking to Red. "His name is Claus. We get into fights sometimes, too, but we always talk it out."

"But Mario's too angry to talk to Luigi, and I don't think Luigi plans on talking to him, either," Red pointed out.

"Then…" Ness started mischievously, "What if we make them?"

Lucas raised a brow. "What do you have in mind?"

"Easy. We lock them in a room until they work it out!"

Red looked unconvinced. "And how do you plan to do that?"

"I have an idea, but…" Ness paused, eyes flickering back and forth between his two friends, "I'm gonna need one of you guys to help me."

Lucas nervously looked at Red, as if silently pleading him to volunteer. Red saw this and rolled his eyes. "I want no part in this whatsoever," the Pokémon trainer said.

"What? Red!" Lucas cried. "That means I'll have to help…"

Ness grinned. "Don't worry, I knew it was gonna be you anyway, Lucas."

Lucas shot a look at him and sighed. "So how do we get them in a room together?"

"Okay, it's simple. One of us has to get Mario, the other has to get Luigi. We meet up with them following us, and we push them into a room and lock the door. And we can't unlock it until they make up."

"Hmm… okay," Lucas said, nodding. "I hope it will be as easy as you say it is… Who's getting who?"

Ness thought about it. "I think I should get Luigi, since I'm closer to him. You can get Mario."

"Okay. Where do we meet?"

"Once we have them both, we'll meet in the hallway my dorm's in."

"Got it," Lucas said. "One more thing, when is this plan going to take place?"

"Tomorrow after lunch?" Ness suggested.

Lucas finished the last piece of omelet that was on his plate. "That sounds fine with me," he said, standing up and picking up his plate. "Are you finished, Red?"

"Yup," Red replied, doing the same as Lucas. "Ready to head back to the room?"

"Yes," the blonde said. "See you tomorrow, Ness!" he called out, waving as he and his roommate placed their dishes in the sink and headed back to their dorm. Ness waved back. As soon as they were out of sight, Ness finished his steak and sat at the table for a bit longer.

_It feels so weird seeing them fight_, Ness thought. _I sure hope the plan works…_

He got up and filled his empty plate with spaghetti for Luigi before bringing it up to his room.

* * *

><p>The next day after lunch, Ness and Lucas met together halfway across from Mario's dorm and Luigi's dorm. "Are you sure this is going to work, Ness?" Lucas questioned; doubt—and a hint of fear—was audible in his voice.<p>

Ness gave a reassuring smile to his blonde friend and held his hand to Lucas' shoulder. "Of course I'm sure the plan is gonna work. Have I ever failed you before?" Before Lucas could respond, Ness continued talking. "Besides, it's not like we have any other way of taking this matter into our hands."

"Then maybe we shouldn't take matters into our hands," Lucas protested, but it didn't make it through Ness' thick head.

"Don't say that! Do you want Luigi and Mario to stay mad any longer?"

Lucas sighed. "No. Of course not."

"Okay then, you're helping me on this."

"But what if I can't get Mario to come?"

"Tie him up if you have to. Those two need to forgive each other."

"Um… o-okay." Lucas turned around and headed for Mario's dorm.

Ness headed back to his own room to find a sulking Luigi sitting near the window again. He felt his heart strings pull again, but he mustered up a cheerful expression for the green plumber to try and bring his spirits up. Ness went to lay on his bed and thought to himself for next few minutes.

It was nearing one o'clock and Ness decided now to begin his part of the plan. "Hey, Luigi, how are you feeling?"

Said plumber respired and ignore Ness' question. "Not well, I guess…"

Awkward silence filled the room.

"So… uh, I have a surprise for you, if you come with me."

Luigi shrugged his shoulders, which Ness took as an approval. He took out a thick black cloth and wrapped it around Luigi's eyes. "Why are you blindfolding me?"

"I did say it was a surprise, of course I'm gonna blindfold you."

Again, Luigi shrugged it off as Ness carefully escorted him to the spot in the hallway he and Lucas had planned the other day at dinner. Lucas was coming around the corner, and Ness almost wished he hadn't come first.

Lucas was dragging Mario behind him, who was tied up, gagged and blindfolded. He didn't put up a struggle—Ness assumed he was asleep. Or knocked out.

"What the heck, Lucas? Why is he tied up?" Ness whispered close enough to Lucas so neither Mario or Luigi would hear him.

"You told me to get him here at any cost, so I took your advice and tied him up," Lucas responded.

Ness stared at him with wide eyes. "I was kidding! I didn't think you'd have the guts to do it!" he said, still whispering.

"H-Hey, I panicked, okay? Do you know how scary Mario is when he's pissed? If this ever happens again, you're taking Mario," Lucas huffed, crossing his arms.

Ness sighed. "Whatever you say."

"So what's next in this plan of yours?"

Ness blinked. _Next…? What was next? …Crap, I haven't thought this far, have I…_

Lucas' next words made Ness wonder if he was a mind-reader. "You mean you haven't thought this far?"

"I didn't think it would actually work up to this point!" Ness argued.

"Well, think of something quick before we get in trouble!"

Ness took a quick look around the area. He noticed a slightly opened door at the end of the hall. He rubbed his eyes to make sure they weren't deceiving him—the door was still open and full of opportunity.

"Quick. Let's go throw them in there," Ness suggested, pointing to the room for Lucas to see.

The blonde looked worried. "But isn't that someone else's room? What if they're in there?"

"I doubt it. Besides, I was planning to check inside before going in."

"…Fine," Lucas soughed.

Ness opened the door fully to find that he was right and that was no one inside. The room was the same size as his room, but it was decorated with different items. Ness motioned Lucas to come over. He came and stopped in front of the open door, dragging Mario behind him.

"Okay. On the count of three, we throw them in together," Ness instructed, earning a nod from Lucas.

The black-haired boy started, "One… Two… Three!"

Both PSI-users threw the Mario Bros. inside and quickly closed the door, locking them inside. Ness felt satisfied. Everything would be okay, now that they had a chance to work things out.

…Right?

Lucas started to panic. "Ness! What did we just do?"

"Hmm? Oh, we just hurled two brothers into a room to solve their problems."

"But—! But—we're at Brawl right now! Did you forget the name of this tournament? Super Smash Brothers BRAWL!" he screamed, waving his hands in the air hysterically. "What if they kill each other instead of talking it out? This isn't a Brawl match, this is reality! Actuality! _Authenticity!_"

_Lucas has a point…_ Ness noticed a window on the farther side of the wall and ran to it. Since their dorms were on the second floor, he had to jump out. He opened it, and quickly leaped out. Luckily, there was a big tree branch to catch his fall.

From where Ness was, he saw Lucas appear at the other side of the window. "What are you doing?"

"I'm gonna find a tree that faces the dorm Mario and Luigi are in so we can see how they're doing."

Before Lucas could complain, Ness used his PSI Thunder to shock Lucas from behind. The blonde PSI-user jumped and, to his misfortune, missed the tree and started to fall toward the ground. Ness saw this and quickly caught Lucas in his arms and waited for the blonde to open his eyes. When he did open them, Ness smiled at him.

"See, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Ness asked smugly, his smile turning into a grin.

Lucas briskly got out of Ness' arms, his cheeks flared with embarrassment. "L-Let's just go over to see what Mario and Luigi are up to."

After jumping from tree to tree for a minute, they finally found the tree branch they could stand on to be able to see inside the room. They saw that Luigi had taken off his blindfold and was quickly helping Mario get untied. It seemed that he was awake now. Or he regained consciousness. Ness couldn't hear what they were saying and quietly opened the window slightly to hear.

"Bro! Are you okay? Who did this to you?" Luigi asked.

Mario wasn't able to respond until Luigi completely untied him. Once he got the blindfold off, he glared up at him. "What are you doing here?"

Luigi looked confused. "Huh?"

"You were the one who tied me up, weren't you?"

Now Luigi looked panicked. "What? No! Why would I do that?"

Mario kept his firm glare on him. "Maybe for revenge, when you _clearly_ shouldn't deserve doing so."

"That doesn't make sense, Mario. If I was the one who did this, I wouldn't have untied you."

Mario seemed too infuriated to hear Luigi out. "So you admit to doing it."

"I said _if_—"

Mario quickly stood up and grabbed Luigi's overalls by the front, slamming him into the nearest wall. Luigi looked shocked; Ness couldn't blame him. It was sad that his brother didn't trust him enough to listen to his reasoning. He was probably angry that Mario was too stubborn to hear him, his own brother, out.

Luigi started to fight back as he began to struggle out of the grip Mario had on him. He pushed his brother hard enough to have Mario's back collide with a table, causing all the items on it to fall to the floor.

"This isn't good, Ness! They're trying to kill each other!" Lucas dreaded.

"Yeah, Luigi is even fighting back," Ness agreed.

Shoving off all the items on the table that had landed on him, Mario stood up and punched Luigi's chest, causing him to stumble back into a dresser. He was about to hit him again, until Luigi drove his fist into his brother's stomach, making Mario cough and tumble onto the floor. The older plumber quickly got up before the younger could get a hit on him. Then, he quickly grabbed a telescope off the top of the dresser and lifted it up, getting ready to slam it down on Luigi's head.

"We have to stop them!" Ness wailed, about to step in on the fight.

Suddenly the door opened, revealing the owners of the room. It was the toony version of Link with Pikachu on his shoulder.

_Didn't I see those two on the train together last week?_ Ness thought. _Wait, now's not the time to be thinking about this! We're screwed!_

"PIIKAA!" Pikachu screamed, looking at the now messy room. Both Mario brothers looked to see who it was.

The toony version of Link saw what was in Mario's hands and how it was about to be used. "ARYLL'S TELESCOPE!" He quickly made a jump for the telescope and pried it out of the plumber's hands. "WHAT DO THINK YOU WERE GONNA DO WITH THIS?"

"Why are you two here, Toon Link?" Mario asked, still shocked by the random interruption.

Toon Link's mouth hung open. "Why are we here? This is our dorm room!"

"Lucas, let's get out of here," Ness said. "They haven't noticed us yet, so I think we might be able to get out of this alive."

Lucas nodded to Ness in agreement, and they slowly tried to get down from the tree. Luck wasn't on their side as Pikachu's ears perked up, hearing noise from the window, and quickly poked his head out to see Ness and Lucas.

"Pi! Pika!" Pikachu lifted a tiny paw to the window.

Toon Link took a look outside and saw what the mouse was looking at. "Oi! What are you two doing there? Get over here, now!" he commanded. His voice lowered down a bit from a few seconds ago.

Both Ness and Lucas froze and sighed in defeat as they began to climb down to the branch closest to the dorm's window, and made their way into the room. Mario looked surprised to see they were being spied on. Luigi's face was filled with more shock than surprise; he must have realized what Ness' real intentions were.

"I have a feeling you two didn't just happen to be there. You guys are probably included in this mess, so you better tell us what the heck happened to our room," Toon Link demanded.

Ness, Lucas, Mario, and Luigi looked at each other and sighed. There was no getting out of this one now…

* * *

><p>"—and that's why we ended up using your room to put them in," Ness finished explaining to Toon Link what had happened since the fight between Mario and Luigi in the Brawl Room. "I'm sorry. We didn't know whose room it was, but it was open and nobody was inside, and the plan was already set, so we used it…"<p>

Ness, Lucas, Mario, Luigi, Toon Link, and Pikachu were all in Toon Link and Pikachu's now messy dorm. Since the couch was broken in half and the beds had other junk on them, everyone sat on the floor in a circle. Ness was next to Lucas and Luigi was next to Mario, but the two still refused to look at each other. Pikachu was perched on top of Toon Link's head.

"I'm really sorry!" Lucas said hastily, giving a quick bow to Toon Link and Pikachu. Ness rolled his eyes. He had a bad habit of apologizing too much. "I-I really am! I didn't mean to mess up your room! I deserve any punishment you give me!"

"Luke, calm down," Ness said. "It was my fault, too. I'm sorry." He turned to Mario and Luigi, "You guys, I'm sorry to you, too. This was my idea in the first place. I didn't like seeing you fight, or Luigi being all depressed, so I wanted to do something about it." He lowered his head. "But I guess I only made it worse."

"You two were only trying to help," Mario told him and Lucas. "You shouldn't put this upon yourselves. But next time, try not to get involved in someone else's fight. It's nice of you to care, but we wouldn't want something like this happening again," he said, slightly lifting up his hat to show a small bump on his head. Ness flinched.

"We're sorry…" Lucas murmured.

"Luigi and I may not be on speaking terms right now," the older plumber continued, "but we'll talk when it's time. Don't worry."

Ness nodded, and after a moment of silence Luigi spoke up. "So, can we all go now?"

"Pika!"

Everyone turned to the small mouse. "What is it, Pikachu?" Toon Link asked, gazing upward.

"Pika pika, pikachu."

Toon Link's cat-like eyes grew. "Really?"

_He can understand him?_

"What did he say?" Lucas asked.

"He said there might have been a misunderstanding," the green-clothed boy said.

"A misunderstanding of what?"

"Mario and Luigi's fight."

The Mario Bros. looked curiously at Pikachu and Ness and Lucas exchanged glances. "Really?" Ness asked.

Toon Link nodded. "Hold on," he said, looking at Pikachu.

The electric mouse started saying something to his roommate, who was nodding as he went along. After Pikachu was done, Toon Link started to explain.

"Ohh, I see. Okay, he said that when we were watching the match between Mario and Luigi against Wario, he noticed something. Remember when Luigi punched Mario?" Regretfully, the other four nodded. "He might have done it to save him."

Mario tilted his head. "Save me?"

Toon Link nodded at him and continued, "Pikachu was watching closely. He saw Luigi go behind Mario and punch him out of the way, making Wario hit him instead. The way he sees it is that time was running out and Luigi knew that one of them was going to get KO'd, but he couldn't do anything about it, so he settled for taking the blow for Mario instead. He knew it wouldn't make a difference in the match, but… he must've had his reasons."

"Pika!" Pikachu smiled, cat-like, at the two brothers.

With a shocked look, Mario stared at Luigi, whose eyes were on the floor. "Is that what happened?" he asked him, softly.

The green plumber nodded slowly. "I tried to tell you, but you wouldn't listen," he murmured quietly.

Mario looked surprised—Ness didn't blame him, he and Lucas shared similar looks. _So that's what happened…_

"Oh, Luigi," Mario said apologetically. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know… If only I would have let you explain…"

"It's okay," Luigi replied, smiling sadly at his brother. "You didn't know. You were angry. I had no right to be talking to you at that moment. If only I trained harder, then this wouldn't have happened…"

Mario shook his head. "No, it wasn't your fault, it was mine. You trained enough. I shouldn't have made you train like that. I know you've made new friends, and I shouldn't have taken away your time with them. I was too focused on beating Wario to figure out what you were really trying to do. None of this is your fault, Luigi. Don't be sorry. _I'm_ the one who should be sorry."

Luigi's eyes watered, and he dabbed furiously at his face with his sleeve before embracing his older brother, sobbing and sniffling into Mario's overalls. Mario smiled amusingly and returned the hug, patting Luigi's back as he continued to bawl. Ness, Lucas, Toon Link, and Pikachu all smiled at the scene.

Lucas suddenly hugged Ness, closing his eyes and burying his head into his neck. Ness was surprised at first, but then tilted his head so that it was slightly resting on his friend's and hugged him back. Toon Link and Pikachu saw this, and the Pokémon jumped down onto the blonde's lap and made a content sound as he purred into his stomach. Toon Link laughed and smiled, petting him affectionately.

Everyone stayed like that for a long time, the only sounds in the room being Luigi's muffled sniffles and the faint sounds of embracing and petting. How it had ended up like this, Ness didn't know, but he was happy about it nonetheless. It was a touching moment that made him feel warm inside, and he wished Red was here to see it and join in. Moments like this were rare, and that's what made everyone reluctant to let go of who they were holding.

Luigi finally pulled away from Mario, wiping his face with his other sleeve. "Are you okay now?" Mario asked, still smiling.

"Yes," Luigi responded, sniffing once more. "I am. Thank you… And I'm sorry…"

"I'm sorry, too," Mario said, standing up and holding his hand out to his younger brother. "If something like this ever happens again, let's promise to talk about it right away, deal? And the other has to listen, no matter how angry they are."

Luigi nodded, gladly accepting Mario's hand and standing up. "Deal."

Mario sent an appreciative smile at Ness and Lucas. "Thank you, you two. Thanks for helping us make up. Maybe your plans _do_ work, after all."

Lucas pulled away from Ness and stared incredulously at the red plumber. "No, don't say that!"

They all laughed. Mario looked at Luigi. "Are you ready to go, Little Bro?"

Luigi grinned. "I am, Big Bro," he replied. They opened the door and started to walk out, but Ness could still hear them through the open door, even as they went down the hall.

"Luigi, can I ask you something?"

"Hm?"

"Why'd you do it?"

"Huh?"

"You know, take the hit for me."

"…"

"It was just a match, you know. Even if I was KO'd instead, it wouldn't make a difference. We'd still lose."

"…I can't stand seeing you get hurt. It might not have made a difference in the match, but to me, it did. I did it… because I love you."

"…Oh, Luigi…"

"…"

"Oh no, don't cry. I love you, too."

"…Uwahhh, MARIOOO!"

"Luigi! No, don't cry! Not here, please!"

Ness, Lucas, Toon Link, and Pikachu all laughed again. Everyone stood up and stretched. Lucas was grinning from ear to ear. "I'm so happy for them! I'm glad everything turned out okay!"

"Me too," Ness said, grinning as well. He looked at Toon Link and Pikachu. "Thanks for letting us use your room to talk."

"No problem!" Toon Link replied enthusiastically. Pikachu—who was on his shoulder—followed his statement with a happy "Pika!" and raised a tiny paw in the air.

Ness turned to Lucas. "How about we get an early dinner?" he asked. "Just the two of us."

Lucas smiled and nodded. "Sure! I can't wait to tell Red about everything he missed after!"

Ness laughed, and after saying goodbye to Toon Link and Pikachu, went to the dining room to get dinner.

* * *

><p><em>Dear Tracy,<em>

_It's been one week since I arrived here at Smash Mansion (which by the way, turned super HUGE since the last tournament), and I've made a few new friends. Everyone's still friendly to each other… well, except two. One is this man who wears a heavy-looking suit and uses pretty much only bombs to fight. The other is a blue hedgehog who wears only gloves, shoes and socks, and runs way faster than King when he saw Pokey dancing to Lady Gaga. Anyway, other than them, there's been no other fighting other than the brawls._

_You already know Lucas, of course. But I recently befriended two other Smashers: a newcomer and a veteran like me. The newcomer's name is Red, and the veteran's is Luigi._

_Red is a Pokémon trainer from a small town called Pallet. He doesn't necessarily fight himself, but he has well trained Pokémon that trust him enough to brawl in his stead. But the crazy part to me is the fact that he's taller and more mature than me, and is still TEN! (I mean, what do they eat at their town?) At the moment, Red only has three of his Pokemon: Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard, but he promised me that he has more at home and I can visit to see after the tournament. Red told me one time that Pokémon are easy to train, but hard to have befriend and trust a trainer, so that must mean he's a great trainer to have so many Pokémon._

_Luigi is the younger twin of Mario and he helps save Peach, princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. Luigi, unlike Mario, is shy in nature and a bit of scaredy-cat, but if you get to know him a bit more he's actually quite nice to have around. He hasn't been on as many adventures as Mario, but he's had his fair share. I'll even send you a published book about his adventures in the Waffle Kingdom (I wasn't planning on reading it anyways). He's also my roommate and I really like having him around, because he has this kind of feeling around him that keeps everyone calm._

_Well, that's all I have to say right now. Write back as soon as you can!_

_Love, Ness_

…

_Hey again, Trace!_

_It might be weird getting a second letter from me right after the first, but I've got more things to say. Remember the line that went something like "There's been no other fighting besides the brawls"? Weeeeellll, I lied. Luigi just had a fight with his brother Mario a few hours ago, and boy, was that rough. But it was such an interesting experience that I just HAVE to tell you about! Anyway, they got into a fight because of a Brawl match, and so Lucas and I came up with a plan to get them to talk, since they weren't on speaking terms at the moment. And our plan was locking them in a room together. Now before you already start on your next letter to me writing "I TOLD YOU YOUR PLANS NEVER WORK," guess what? It DID! In a way… but it still worked! So may I be the first: I TOLD YOU ONE OF MY PLANS WOULD EVENTUALLY WORK! _

_Anyway, once we got them in a room together, they kinda fought… physically… but we got them to stop, along with our new friends Toon Link and Pikachu. Toon Link is a toony version of the real Link, and Pikachu is… well, you know Pikachu! The small, yellow mouse Pokémon. So we got them to calm down and talk things out. Turns out, there's been a misunderstanding, and what do you know, Pikachu was the one to figure it out! They made up, and Luigi actually cried! It was amusing, but it was touching. Lucas and I hugged while Mario and Luigi did, and so did TL and Pikachu. I wish you were there to see it!_

_So, their fight has taught me a few things. Even though siblings get into fights, they end up making up eventually, and their fights actually make them get closer by helping them realize their mistakes and make up. So I just wanted to say, I love you, Sis. I love you and Mom and King, and I miss all of you guys with all my heart. I can't wait until the day you get to visit. You WILL come, right? Haha, of course you would. Bring Mom and King with you too, okay? But DO. NOT. BRING. POKEY. He'll make a fool out of himself and embarrass me._

_Haha, well, that's enough for this letter. I've gone on long enough. I love you, Baby Sis! Tell Mom and King I love them and miss them, too!_

_Love, Ness_

_(P.S. How many times have I used the word "love" in this letter?)_

…

_Dear Ness,_

_I was a little surprised to see that you wrote me two letters, but I'm glad you did. That means more words from you! Yay! (And just so you know, I already started to write "I TOLD YOU YOUR PLANS NEVER WORK," until you said that it did. Congrats, Bro!)_

_Well, I'm happy that you're having fun! It's good to know you made new friends. When me, Mom and King come over, you better introduce them to me! And don't worry, I already knew not to tell Pokey about visiting._

_That plan sounds original… but still, I'm glad (and surprised) that it worked! I would have loved to see that._

_Aww, you're making me all warm, Ness. I love you too, and I'll tell Mom and King what you said!_

_Love, Tracy_

_(P.S. 5 times.)_

* * *

><p>(1) <em>"You son of a bitch!"<em>

(2) _"You idiot! You just called Mom a bitch!"_

**Kai: I don't know Italian, so that part with (1) and (2) might have a few errors. We used Google Translate to translate it for us, and we all know how inaccurate it can be sometimes. Oh, we don't own that either, by the way. I think that was pointless to say. Well, it's up to you to figure out who said what.**

**Mato: And we chose Red and Luigi to become good friends with Ness and Lucas because of the Subspace Emissary storyline… and we like them a lot. We all know how Red and Lucas are good friends but for Luigi and Ness we assumed. Remember they were turned into trophies together by Wario and Dedede? They must have become good friends during that time.**

**Kai: Sorry for making Mario look like such a d-bag. We really do like him, but we wanted some drama to create some fluff later on. C'mon, you all know you loved it.**

**Mato: We also needed it to introduce Toon Link and Pikachu. Yes they are becoming main characters. Why? Because they're our mains in Brawl. :DD Pikachu is Kai's main, TL is mine.**

**Kai:** (3) **Okay, here's the semi-important part we were talking about earlier. Remember the part when everyone was throwing different things at Wario? Specific Smashers each threw something that resembles them at him. Anyhoo, we're holding a contest to see who can guess who threw what. You can make your guesses in the reviews, or as a PM. Either one's fine with us. Whoever guesses them all correctly (or has the most correct guesses) will receive a shout-out and a virtual cookie in the next chapter. Have fun!**

**Mato: We better hurry with the next chapter or I'll eat the virtual cookie before they could have it. =7=**

**Kai: How do you eat a **_**virtual**_** cookie?**

**Mato: My OC give it to me and I eat it happily. :D**

**Kai: …Sorry I asked?**

**Mato: It's okay :P Anyways this is the end of Chapter 3. I hope you have an EXTREME time!**

**- kai and MATO~**


	4. Smelly Suspicions

**DB: GUESS WHO'S BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK?**

**Mato: I'll give you a hint, one is a short midget.**

**Kai: And the other is a skinny OCD leech.**

**Mato: If you didn't guess by now, just wow…**

**Kai: Anyway, sorry for the insanely long wait. Our procrastination has reached its peak.**

**Mato: And we were wrapped up with school and Fire Emblem.**

**Kai: Yeah. But now we're on winter break (even if it's just for a little longer) and we finally ****got to start typing this again.**

**Mato: Yep! We decided to beat the crap out of procrastination and laziness!**

**Kai: And our New Year's resolutions will include updating this at least ONCE A MONTH. So ****even if we have to publish a chapter on January 31st at 11:59 PM, we'll do it.**

**Mato: And if we miss a month your free to rant at us about it. It'll just make us work faster!**

**Kai: We might even publish 2 chapters during the next month. So no more worries about ****slow updates.**

**Mato: we'll shut up now so you can read the glorious chapter you've been waiting on.**

**Kai: Oh and one more thing! Thank you thank you thank you thank you for all your reviews! Seriously, we were excited when we read them and we kept saying "Omg we need to update for them already" but we never did. So sorry about that, but you can enjoy now!**

* * *

><p>"SUDDEN DEATH. GO!"<p>

_S-sudden death? NOOO, the bombs!_

Ness started to panic as he frantically whipped his head back and forth to see who had the same number of kills he had. There was only one person on the Bridge of Eldin besides him, and that was a certain big-nosed fatty that no one was ever really pleased to see.

"H-hey there, big guy," Ness greeted Wario behind him, raising a hand up in a friendly manner. Wario grinned, showing his surprisingly white teeth.* Ness visibly flinched at the sight of them. He turned around and ran as quickly as he could to the other side of the bridge. His plan was to attack Wario from afar with his PSI, which would probably be enough to send him flying off the stage before any bombs came. It was also a safe approach, considering he was fighting someone like Wario.

As he was running, Ness heard Wario's loud footsteps advancing toward him. He turned around and charged up a PK Fire in his palm, sending it straight at Wario's face. Unfortunately, Wario jumped and made that sickeningly familiar gesture that signaled he was about to rocket into the sky with a brown cloud trailing behind him. Ness' eyes widened in both disgust and shock. The reason for disgust was obvious, but shock over the fact that Wario was already fart-ready. Everyone knew that Wario's fart had to be held in for a certain amount of time before he was ready to blow up. So why was he prepared to do it _now_?

Ness roll-dodged out of the way just in time to avoid the impact of the fart on his face. He could have sighed in relief right there, but as soon as Wario hit the ground, he faced Ness and jumped at him. Ness wasn't prepared this time, and Wario's ass was unforgiving. He shut his eyes and held his breath, although he knew it wouldn't make much of a difference. To be honest, he wasn't worried about being blown off the field and losing the match. He was worried for his poor nose.

Immediately the putrid stench filled his nose as his closed eyes began to tear up. He felt himself die both inside and out—quite literally. And then he knew the match was over, and that he'd just lost to Wario. He felt frustrated with himself and Wario, but also oddly confused. Something was bugging him about that match. How was Wario able to fart again almost instantly after he had done so the first time? Wasn't he supposed to charge up first? And how was ready at the beginning of Sudden Death?

Ness shook his head as he reentered the Brawl Room through the transporter. He found Red and Lucas talking to each other, and they turned to face him as soon as they heard him come out. Then again, maybe they smelled him instead, because their noses crinkled in disgust.

"I didn't realize the stench still lingers after a match," Red commented, pinching his traumatized nose.

"I didn't expect it to," Ness said. The thought of Wario being seemingly fart-ready kept bothering him, so he decided to tell his two friends about it. "Hey, did you guys notice anything…_fishy_ about that fight?" He mentally slapped himself for the unintended pun.

"Fishy? It depends on what you mean by that," Lucas said.

"I mean fishy as in suspicious," Ness clarified.

Lucas and Red looked at each other before shaking their heads no.

"Really? Nothing? Not a single thing?" Ness tried, but he received the same response.

"I'm sure," Lucas said.

"Why, did you?" Red asked.

"Didn't you notice that he was able to fart _twice_ in a row? It usually takes him forever to get one ready!" Ness said, waving his hands around for emphasis.

"…You noticed that?" Red asked disturbingly.

Ness inwardly admitted it was a bit strange, now that Red had mentioned it. "Of course!" he said defensively. "I need to know my enemies' fighting style inside and out if I want to win."

"Hmm," Lucas hummed, "I never thought of it that way."

"I guess you have a point," Red agreed. "It seemed a bit unnatural."

"Which is why I'm going to investigate. I feel like that win wasn't just luck," Ness stated.

Lucas started fidgeting with his hands, a gesture Ness knew he did when he was worried or nervous. "Investigate?" he asked, obviously uneasy with the idea. "Ness, don't you think that's going a little too far? It was just one match."

"I don't think it was just one match, Luke. Remember that match with Mario and Luigi? He kept spamming his farts there, too!"

The blonde tilted his head up in thought. "Now that I think about it, you're right."

"What are you planning to do?" Red spoke up.

Ness shrugged. "Meh. A little snooping here and there, maybe go into Wario's room if I'm desperate," he answered nonchalantly.

Lucas and Red's eyes widened in unison. "W-Wario's room?" they stuttered in disbelief, staring at Ness like he was crazy. And since he just considered going into Wario's room in such a casual manner, he probably was.

"Yes, I know it's dangerous, but I want to know how he's doing it!" Ness blurted out.

"You're not _that_ desperate, are you?" Red asked, crossing his arms and lifting an eyebrow.

"Ness, I wouldn't," Lucas said, eyebrows knitting together in anxiety.

"Don't worry, guys," Ness assured them. "I'll be fine." He dropped his head slightly to the side and quietly muttered, "I hope."

After a moment of silence, Lucas finally said, "Well, all right. Just be sure to remember we have a brawl match against Wario before lunch."

_Oh, great. ANOTHER match._ "Yeah. How could I forget? He just ruined my face!" He groaned, suddenly remembering the stench that was still lingering on him. "Well… If you'll excuse me, I'll be going to my room now." He turned and waved at Lucas and Red before leaving through the exit door of the Brawl Room.

Walking through the hallway, Ness purposely passed his room. _There's no point in showering if I'm just gonna get my face farted in the next match,_ he thought, and went straight for Wario's room. Ness quietly tiptoed through the halls, occasionally whipping his head around to see if anyone was there. He was humming the Mission Impossible theme to himself the entire time—very quietly, of course. Almost ninja-like.

Wario's room was perhaps the most repulsive thing Ness has ever laid his eyes on. And that was just the _outside_. Also, considering he knew Pokey, this had to be a new record. Not only could he smell the room before it even came into view, but when he did get there, the stench was actually _visible_. Some sort of green fog was emanating from under the door, and Ness immediately lost whatever willpower he'd felt when he declared to Lucas and Red he would be going. He shook his head, mustering up all the courage he could before stepping up to the door.

He took a deep breath, which was a bad idea, considering the environment around him, and was about to place his hand on the foul doorknob until he heard the faint pitter-patter of footsteps coming around the corner. He quickly jerked back his hand and stepped—more like leaped—away from the door. The pitter-patter grew closer; close enough for Ness to see who they belonged to.

_C-cute!_ Ness thought as he saw Pikachu, wandering through the hallway on his two little feet. The Pokémon was holding what looked like a ketchup bottle, and was licking the top adorably.** _Wait… I could probably use a lookout while I'm searching Wario's room. I wouldn't want to know what would happen if he caught me…_

"Hey you, Pikachu!" Ness called out. Pikachu tilted his head and turned to Ness. The PSI-user motioned for him to come over, and when he did, Ness said, "Can I ask a favor of you? I need you to watch out for Wario while I sneak into his room."

Pikachu had on a similar expression as Lucas and Red did. "P-piiika?"

_He probably thinks I'm crazy, too…_ Ness thought. "I just want to investigate on how Wario was able to win so much recently."

Pikachu nodded after a while, and raised a paw up to salute.

"Thanks," Ness said gratefully, looking back to the door. "Wish me luck. Oh, and give me a signal for when he's coming. Maybe you could scratch at the door a few times?"

The Pokémon nodded and went up to the door with Ness. Ness placed his hand on the knob and opened it easily. _Doesn't he lock his room? He probably thinks the smell is enough to keep them away._ Immediately, Ness' nostrils burned at the stench. But there was no turning back now. He bravely stepped inside and shut the door behind him.

_Ugh-! How can he stand living in his own filth?_ were Ness' thoughts as his eyes began to water. "Now where to start…?" He tried to ignore the smell as much as possible, and he began to search around the room for anything suspicious. He looked under the furniture, the floor (which he couldn't even see), some clothes, and even his dresser. Ness slammed it shut right away, and he questioned why he'd even _considered_ doing that.

After a few agonizing minutes of searching, Ness couldn't find anything out of the ordinary for Wario's standards. Lost in his thoughts about his suspicions, he almost didn't hear Pikachu's scratching at the door from the outside. "Ugh… I don't think I can take this much longer. Wait, was that the signal?"

The doorknob started to turn.

Ness panicked. "Crap! Uhh…" He glanced around, searching frantically for a hiding place. He settled on a closet, quickly opening it and jumping inside. _MOTHER—the closet is ten times worse!_ He changed his position into a sitting one, and he felt something under him move. Ness' head whipped around. _What was that?_ It felt like he was on top of a pile of clothes, but it seemed like something else under him was alive. Or something that shouldn't be alive.

Ness held completely still so he wouldn't disturb the—the creature that was under him. He held his breath and tried to ignore the putrid stench. Outside, he listened carefully for what Wario was doing. He heard the door shut, and then Wario breathe in and out. Were Ness' ears deceiving him, or did it sound like he _enjoyed_ the contaminated air? He made the quick conclusion that _stinky equaled fresh air to Wario._

Something fell on top of him. Something…light, but with some sort of tentacles. _Wh-what IS THAT?_ Still, he didn't scream or whimper or anything. He stayed completely still.

Outside, he heard what he assumed to be a fart. "Nn—"

_E-eew… What is he doing?_ Ness finally couldn't take whatever the thing was on top of him, so he yanked it off and threw it to the ground.

"Oh! Oh yeah…"

_Get out of here already! I want some FRESH AIR!_

"Ah yes. YES!"

Ness shuddered. _O-oh god. Is he…?_

Then he heard panting, along with the sound of flushing. He sighed, quietly thankful Wario wasn't doing…that. _Oh. I thought he was—euh. Euuuh!_ He covered his face with his sleeve, not being able to withstand the smell of the closet any longer. _I can't TAKE IT ANYMORE! I'm going to die in here, aren't I?_

Wario wasn't grunting anymore, but instead Ness heard him munching on something._ Now what's he doing?_ He slightly opened the closet door to see Wario's back turned toward him, eating what he thought to be garlic. "Mmm. The good stuff," the fat treasure hunter said gruffly, taking another bite.

_I can't see…_ Ness thought. _Maybe it's cause there's water in my eyes…_

Letting out one more fart, Wario gulped whatever he was eating down and left the room. Ness hurriedly fiddled for the door handle, and once he opened it, he inhaled the somewhat fresher air deeply and fell face-forward before everything blacked out.

* * *

><p>When Ness opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was that the room was clean. He blinked a few times, still adjusting to the light and whiteness of the room, and saw that he was in the hospital wing of the mansion. <em>What happened?<em>

"Oh, thank goodness you're awake!" came a voice next to him. Ness turned to his right and saw Toon Link with Pikachu on his shoulder.

"Toon Link? How did I get here?" Ness asked. He couldn't remember anything but being in that horrible, suffocating thing that was Wario's closet. And then everything came back to him. He dropped his head back onto the pillow on his bed.

"Pikachu told me you went into Wario's room," Toon Link said. He raised a huge eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest. "Why the heck did you do that, anyway?" Ness didn't respond because honestly, he wasn't so sure anymore. "Well, whatever. Pikachu said you weren't coming out after a while, so when he came to check on you he found you passed out on the floor next to the closet."

_Next to the closet, _he just had to say. "Oh. Right. Thanks, Pikachu," he said, nodding at the mouse. Pikachu smiled and let out a "Cha" as a response. "Hey…what time is it?" Ness asked, feeling like he was forgetting something.

Toon Link looked back at the clock on the wall. "11:20. Why?" His cat-like eyes suddenly widened. "Wait, don't you have a match with Lucas against Wario at 11:30?"

"What?" Ness said, taking time to absorb Toon Link's words. A match with Lucas… He blinked once, then twice, then rapidly with wide eyes. "Crap!" He sat upright immediately and jumped onto the floor, looking at Toon Link and Pikachu to see if they were coming.

"Don't worry, we'll catch up with you later," Toon Link told him, motioning for him to go. Ness was about to run out of the infirmary to the Brawl Room, until Toon Link's voice stopped him. "Oh, and Ness?"

Ness turned around.

"TAKE A BATH!"

* * *

><p>Ness and Lucas fought hard against Wario on Distant Planet, but despite it being two against one, they were all on their last lives. Wario lost his two other lives by being washed down the cliff by the rain and from a PK Love by Lucas, Lucas lost his by falling on top of the Bulborb as it was leaving the stage and getting knocked out of the stage by Wario, and Ness had the worse deaths of them all—first, he spotted Steak-chan coming out of a party ball, and immediately rushed to get her when Wario gobbled her down. He stood there in shock, her cry of help practically ringing in his ears. He didn't notice Wario's fist coming at his face, and he was knocked out. The second death, he was pushed into the Bulborb's mouth by Wario.<p>

_Okay, I've had enough of this,_ Ness thought, attempting to hit Wario with his bat, but missing due to Wario quickly sidestepping out of the way. Lucas came up behind Ness, ready to back him up, when Ness noticed something. Wario was making that gesture again. Ness gulped, steeling himself.

Wario emphasized his rear, and Ness instinctively roll-dodged out of harm's way. He lay flat on his back, but when he looked up from the ground, Wario was coming down on him. He stayed there, petrified, when suddenly a flame—PK Fire from Lucas—was sent towards the gaseous air, and stopped right in front of him. Wario's rear began enlarging again, and that's when time seemed to stop for Ness.

In slow motion, Wario's ass let out a terrifying sound, and Ness' sight was blocked by brown residue. Only, it didn't stay brown for long. Because Lucas' PK fire was still there. Ness put two and two together in his head. _Gas. Fire. …OH, CR—_

The sound of an explosion came down upon Ness' ears, and the brown smoke turned into a blackish-gray color. He was sent flying into the air, with no hope of recovering. Just before he was blasted off the stage completely, he saw Lucas floating away, completely safe inside his blue PSI-magnet. _He's FINE? TREASON! Lucas, you traitor!_ And then he heard the blasting sound of his death off the stage, and then he was transported back into the Brawl Room.

When Ness stepped out of the transporter inside the Brawl Room, he spotted Toon Link, Pikachu and Red watching the TV screen, their mouths agape. They must have heard him enter, because they ran up to him instantly. For some reason, Toon Link patted his head and ruffled his hair. Wait…ruffled? His hair?

Ness moved Toon Link's hand out of the way and felt for himself. His eyes widened and he gasped loudly, moving his other hand to his head to feel his hair. His signature hat was gone! Burned! Singed by the aftermath of the explosion!

"NOOOOO!" Ness screamed, digging his hands into his hair and nearly pulling it off.

"Calm down, Ness," Red said slowly. "It was just a hat, right? You can borrow one of mine."

Ness glared at him. "Just a hat? JUST A HAT? That was a special one my dad ordered for me! MY DAD!"*** He was shaking Red back and forth now, grabbing at the sleeves of his arm.

"How did he do that?" Toon link wondered, snapping Ness back to reality. "Fart twice in a row, I mean," he clarified.

"See? I told you it was suspicious," Ness said. What about Wario made him recently able to abuse that fart of his? Ness thought back earlier that morning, back when he was investigating Wario's room. Did anything leave an impression on him at all? All he remembered were those long, agonizing minutes left to die in the closet, hearing those disturbing sounds from Wario, watching him eat garlic… Wait, garlic?

"GARLIC!" he yelled out, not caring if anyone else in the room turned to look at him. "That's it! He's been smuggling garlic into battles!" Ness quickly told the others that he was going to tell Master Hand and get Wario punished, and surprisingly, Pikachu jumped off Toon Link's shoulder and stood beside Ness. His red cheeks sparked and sent out tiny flecks of lighting, and Ness took it that he wanted to go with him. Nodding at the mouse determinedly, Ness ran off to Master Hand's office with Pikachu running beside him.

* * *

><p>"Master Hand! Master Hand! We have something important to tell you!" Ness said, barging into Master Hand's office.<p>

"Do not run in the halls, you two," the hand said firmly. "What is it?"

"We found out Wario is cheating to make himself extra gassy!" Ness said, barely concealing his eagerness to find out Wario's punishment. But he had to prove he was right, first.

Master Hand gave a gesture that Ness thought was equivalent to raising an eyebrow. "In battles? How so?"

"By smuggling garlic into the matches! That's how he's able to fart at any time he wants when he has to wait for it to load!"

Master Hand appeared to be stroking some sort of invisible beard. "Hmmm… Bring him here. We'll find out if that's true."

Ness saluted to him, and looked down at his companion. "Let's go, Pikachu!" They turned around and went back into the hallway to begin their search.

Before Ness could even think of where to start, Pikachu raised a paw and pointed in a direction. "Pika pi!"

"Hold it right there!" Ness shouted, having caught a glimpse of Wario peeking behind a turn in the hallway before he ran off. Ness and Pikachu gave chase, and they found themselves and Wario in a hall leading to a single window. The treasure hunter attempted to fit through, but the poor guy got stuck when he tried to squeeze his chest through. Pikachu let out a thunderbolt and shocked him, and although it wasn't necessary, Ness found himself amused.

"HOLY—!" Wario started to say.

"You're coming with us, cheater." Ness came up to him and put his hands on his hips.

Pikachu grabbed at Wario's foot and tugged at it, trying to get Wario out. With a little help from Ness, they eventually got him out and began dragging him toward Master Hand's office. "Eh? Cheater? You don't have anything on me!" Wario said, but a harsh look from Ness and the sound of Pikachu's cheeks flaring with electricity shut him up.

"Shut up, fatty!" Ness snapped at him. "It's your fault my hat got roasted!"

Back at Master Hand's office, Ness and Pikachu stopped dragging Wario and took a moment to catch their breath. The man was tiring to drag around.

"Ah… What did you do to him?" Master hand asked.

"We didn't do anything to him," Ness tried to convince him.

"What?" Wario piped up in disbelief. "Like hell you didn—"

"Hey, I told you to shut up!" Ness said. Pikachu nodded in agreement.

"Well, now that you have him here, can you find evidence that he has been smuggling garlic into the arena?" Master Hand asked.

"Ha! You can't find anything because I didn't do it," came Wario's voice.

Ness grimaced. "Looks like we have no choice. We have to…check his pockets." Pikachu's ears drooped as he began searching one of Wario's pockets. Ness took a look at the other and felt something he couldn't quite put his hands on. _What's IN here?_

He heard Pikachu start sniffing at something, and he turned to him to see the mouse put his mouth into Wario's pocket—bless his soul—and pull something out with his teeth. Ness noticed it was a piece of garlic. Pikachu spit it out of his mouth and onto the floor, raising his head proudly. "Pika!"

"Aha!" Ness exclaimed, picking up the piece of garlic on the floor and raising it for Master Hand to see. He turned to Wario and asked accusingly, "What were you going to do with this?"

Wario seemed to realize there was no getting out of this one, now that Pikachu had discovered cold, hard evidence against him. "Umm…er…"

"Wario. You will answer," Master Hand demanded. "Or would you like your punishment to be that much more severe?"

"Grrr… Fine, I admit of cheating," Wario said finally. Ness felt a burst of happiness and relief, and he jumped about ten feet in the air before running around the office in joy.

"YES! HE ADMITS IT!" he shouted gleefully, not caring about a thing except for his achievement and the fact that his suspicions were correct. After that embarrassing defeat on the Bridge of Eldin, the investigation in Wario's room he didn't feel like experiencing ever again, and the even more embarrassing defeat on Distant Planet, Ness finally figured out what Wario was doing this whole time, and he was able to tell Master Hand all about it. The only thing that was going to make this day even better was finding out the punishment Master Hand intended to give Wario for his actions.

"Pika!" Pikachu said in a tone equal to Ness', and he jumped around in the air to express his happiness.

Master Hand drifted towards Wario, anger visible with the way he clenched his fingers to himself. "How long has this been going on?"

"Since that one battle with Mario and Luigi!" Ness informed, assuming Wario would just lie about that, too.

"How dare you violate my rules, Wario!" Master Hand said, clearly furious now. "I should have you banned… However, I know of a crueler punishment for someone like you."

Ness looked at Master Hand, confusion written on his face. "What can be worse than getting banned?" He pondered on the possibilities.

Master Hand pointed his index finger inches away from the fat plumber's face. "Wario, for the next few days, you are to stay locked inside your room and CLEAN IT UP!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Wario screamed, obviously hysterical with the idea.

_Payback time._ Ness smirked as a devious idea popped into his head. "May I suggest you make him wear a maid outfit while he cleans?" The PSI-user inwardly laughed at the dirty look Wario was giving him. _That's for ruining my hat._

"Pikachu!" the mouse said in agreement as a yellow paw went up.

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea," Master Hand considered. "And since you caught me in the mood…" The disembodied hand floated towards a different room and came out holding a complete maid outfit set.

_W-whoa! Why does he even have that? _Ness eyed Master Hand, wondering as to why he would have something like a maid outfit if he couldn't even wear it.

Wario looked scared enough to pee his—probably dirty—pants.

"Go! Or do you want me to allow people to watch while you clean, too?" Master Hand threatened as he tossed the outfit towards Wario.

Needless to say, the fat treasure hunter ran the fastest anyone has ever seen him run before.

Both Ness and Pikachu smiled triumphantly as they high-fived each other. After Master Hand thanked them for the job well done, they left the office and stepped outside.

"Ness!"

Hearing his name, Ness turned around to see Lucas—his _partner_—calling for him.

The blonde stopped in front of Ness, breathing heavily. Did he run all the way over here just to tell him something? Whatever, it didn't matter—Ness was still angry at him.

"Ness. I'm so sorry; I didn't realize what was going to happen until it was too late," Lucas apologized. "The others even said your hat was..."

"Burned, I know, I know," Ness said, frowning. "You don't have to remind me." He felt sorry for speaking to his best friend in such a way. It seemed impossible to stay mad at someone at Lucas.

Lucas looked down, guilt written on his face. "I'm sorry. Is anything I can do to make up for it, Ness?"

Ness was about to object and say that _he_ was sorry for the way he was talking to him, but a thought came to mind. "Sure. If you order me a new hat."

Lucas looked up in surprise. "Really? All I have to do is order you a new hat?" Clearly, he thought Ness would ask for more.

"Yup, that's it," Ness said with a smile. "You know I can't stay mad at you, Luke."

"Okay. Don't worry, Ness, I'll even get you the exact same hat you lost!" Lucas said cheerfully, most likely relieved his friend wasn't mad at him at all.

Ness laughed and casually put an arm around Lucas. "Thanks," he said. He looked back at Pikachu, who was smiling at them cutely, and motioned for him that it was time to go.

Walking back to Toon Link and Red, they noticed a certain fat treasure hunter hobbling down the hall in a tight maid outfit.

Ness, Lucas and Pikachu don't think they've ever laughed harder than they did that day.

* * *

><p>*For some reason, if you noticed, Nintendo gave Wario some really clean teeth in Brawl. Mario's are about 5x dirtier.<p>

**Anybody remember that episode in Pokémon when Pikachu revealed his love for ketchup? ;D

***Kudos to the people who can figure out why _MY DAD_ is so emphasized.

**Mato: Weeeeeeeeeeeellllllllll. How was it guys? Wasn't it just the best chapter you've read?**

**Kai: It's kind of weird since it goes from such simple writing to a more detailed one, but that's just us getting our passion of writing again.**

**Mato: You got that right Kai! I hope you still enjoyed it either way. I can't believe we so lazy for so long. :/**

**Kai: I know! We've been gone for how many months? 4? And we said we'd leave for only a month or two... I guess our New Year's resolution is reparation for that.**

**Mato: Remember viewers, you have to nag us if we don't get it in by the deadline okay? I'd even let you guys slap me in the face with a fish to get it done if you we're able to!**

**Kai: Eh heh... I don't think I'm ready for that.**

**Mato: Aww. Well anyways I guess we'll see you here again February. But if we do miss and month and you guys aren't there to rant, I'll rant and YOU for not doing the job. -3-**

**Kai: Aha. Oh, and since next month is February... Can anyone say "Valentine's Day Special"?**

**Mato: More importantly, anyone wanna guess at the said Special? Go ahead and try but don't think you'll get a prize out of it. =w=**

**Kai: IF they get it, which I highly doubt. But feel free to guess all you want.**

**Mato: That reminds me it's time to show the results of that contest in chapter 3.**

**Kai: Oh yeah! So there were a total of three people who tried it, but they all missed one. The same one, too.**

**Mato: Yep! They all missed spike shaped like a shark tooth. By the way that belonged to Bowser. :9**

**Kai: So we admit that was kind of hard. We don't even know how Bowser got that out anymore... I think he took it off his shell or something. But since they all got the rest right, we thought we'd send a shout-out to Plasmicstorm, Hyralc, and NintendoGamerX (who sent it through a PM). Congratz!**

**Mato: You all get cookies! What flavor? COOKIE FLAVOR! ...Anyways, w****e should probably get going now huh Kai? Well, I'll see you all next month! Ciao Ciao!**

**Kai: Hmm, we probably should. Besides, I want to watch more of the original Pokémon. My dear readers, I bid you adieu!**

**- kai and MATO~**


	5. Romance in the Air?

**CRAZY HAND: HEY GUYS, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!**

**Master Hand: We've been asked by Kai and Mato to take their place in this chapter's Author's Note, because—**

**CRAZY HAND: THEY JUST FELT LIKE IT WOULD BE FITTING!**

**Master Hand: *sigh* You didn't use the reason they requested—**

**CRAZY HAND: YEAH, BUT I FORGOT BRO! CAN YOU TELL THE READERS?**

**Master Hand: ...They are currently not available because— *pauses to look at paper* They are busy "getting high off chocolate hearts and Hershey's."**

**CRAZY HAND: HAHA OH YEAH! THAT'S FUNNY CONSIDERING THEY DON'T HAVE BOYFRIENDS (Mato: SHADDUP! I HEARD THAT!)**

**Master Hand: Moving on. Let's see... They say they've prepared an **_**extra-long**_** chapter for all the readers, so—**

**CRAZY HAND: YOU CAN ALL ENJOY AS YOU EAT YOUR CHOCOLATES! ISN'T THAT NICE?**

**Master Hand: Very. And now the paper instructs us to "shut up and let them read"—**

**CRAZY HAND: OH OKAY THEN! COME ON BRO SHUT UP AND LET THEM READ HAPPY FLUFFY THINGIES!**

**Master Hand: ...I'm the one that needs to shut up?**

* * *

><p>"Pit, you can't stay in there forever."<p>

Ness stopped in his tracks in the middle of the hallway. _Huh?_ he thought. _What's going on?_ Something about that voice and that name seemed familiar. He padded lightly on the carpet floor to avoid making noise and poked his head out from the corner of the wall. The blue-haired swordsman—Ike, if he remembered correctly—was there, looking impatient at the foot of a cabin door.

"I'm not going out! I look ridiculous!" Pit's voice came from inside said door. Ike leaned against the door and sighed, crossing his arms. Ness found himself wondering about what was happening even more, and before he could stop his feet, he was already out in the open.

"Umm… What's going on?" he asked, looking at Ike and walking towards him.

The bluenette lifted his head from the door and turned to acknowledge Ness. "Hm? Oh, I'm just trying to get my friend out of his room."

"Not going out!" Pit huffed defiantly.

Ness tilted his head. "Huh? Why not?"

"Because I look—"

"Fine," Ike cut him off. "You look just fine, now stop worrying."

"You can't even see me!" Pit exclaimed. What exactly was he wearing?

"Come on, I want to see," Ness prodded. "How bad can you look?"

There was a short pause before Pit spoke. "Eh? I don't recognize that voice."

Oh, right. Ness hasn't properly introduced himself to these two.

"Oh, I'm Ness. I'm one of the veterans from the first tournament," he said, talking to both Pit and Ike.

"Ness? Okay. But that's still not going to change my mind," Pit asserted.

"Come on, Pit," Ike groaned. "You're going to ruin everyone's favorite holiday."

"Yeah, Pit. Don't be selfish," Ness added.

One more final pause. Then Pit gave up. "Ughhh, fine. Swear that you won't laugh! Then I'll come out."

"You already know I won't laugh," Ike assured him.

Ness couldn't exactly say the same thing, however. So he said the closest thing to being a yes that wasn't exactly a no. "…I'll try not to?"

"…Fair enough."

Slowly—_very_ slowly—the door opened.

And then Pit walked out, frowning, clad in a bright red and pink toga with wings colored a light pink hue.

Ness immediately clapped a hand over his mouth, muffling his silent laugh. _Can't laugh. Shouldn't laugh… I CAN'T TAKE IT!_ He burst out laughing loudly, clutching his aching abdomen and pointing at the angel at the same time. His eyes were filling up with tears so rapidly he just barely noticed Pit grumble and stomp back into the room.

"Wait, Pit—!" Ike called out. "It's not as bad as you think!"

"W-wait, Pit!" Ness managed to get out. He chuckled lightly as he tried to continue. "I'm sorry! It just caught me off-guard!"

Pit was ready to close the door on them. "If that was your reaction, just imagine everyone else's. I'll be the laughing stock of the day!"

"But it's Valentine's Day. It fits," Ness said, puffing his cheeks. "Besides, I bet everyone will be too lovey-dovey to notice." It wasn't enough to convince Pit, because he shook his head and slammed the door shut.

Right at that moment, a certain jumpy hand came floating at a high speed into the hallway. "DO YOU KNOW WHERE PIT IS?" Crazy Hand's voice boomed.

"Umm," was all Ness said. He pointed at the closed door.

"THANKS!" The hand formed himself into a fist and punched the door down with little effort.

"Uh—" Ike started.

"Crazy?" Pit said from inside, startled. "What are you—"

"HEEEEEY, PIT! I NEED TO TELL YOU SOMETHING SUPER IMPORTANT!"

Ness tried to interrupt. "Hey, won't Master Hand get mad that you broke the door down, Cra—"

"NOT NOW! YOU GUYS NEED TO GO SOMEWHERE ELSE! IT'S PRIVATE!" Crazy Hand came out and began shoving Ness and Ike farther into the hallway, until they were a good feet away from the room. He quickly floated back to Pit.

"…I guess I'll see him later, then," Ike said. "Bye, Ness." The swordsman lifted a hand before walking down the hallway.

"Okay, later," Ness said, watching him leave. He couldn't get Crazy Hand's sudden interruption out of his head.

_I wonder what was so important…_ he thought.

Ness decided to tiptoe back to the room—which wasn't necessary, given the fact that Crazy's voice could practically mute a bomb going off—and hide behind the wall to listen. He huddled up against the wall next to the door Crazy Hand broke down.

"Uh, what is it?" Pit asked awkwardly.

"PIT, I HAVE A SUPER SPECIAL MISSION FOR YOU!" Crazy Hand announced loudly.

Ness heard Pit shift his body nervously. "Wh-what kind of mission?"

"YOU KNOW HOW IT'S VALENTINE'S DAY TODAY, RIGHT? WELL, TAKE THESE!" Crazy Hand said as he threw something at Pit.

_What did he give Pit? A Valentine's Day card?_ Ness questioned thoughtfully.

Pit seemed to barely catch what Crazy Hand threw. "What are these?" he questioned.

"THESE ARE LOVE-LOVE ARROWS. I WANT YOU TO SHOOT THESE AT PEOPLE, OKAY?"

"'Love-love' arrows?" Ness whispered as he raised an eyebrow.

"Okay…why me?" Pit paused. "Don't answer that."

"BECAUSE YOU'RE AN ANGEL, SILLY!" Crazy Hand laughed. "NOW REMEMBER, THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF ARROWS HERE: THE LOVE ONES, AND THE _**LOVE**_ ONES!" The hand instructed, emphasizing the second choice of arrows.

…_What's the difference?_

"Okay, so what do the love arrows do, and what do the _**love**_ arrows do?" Pit asked, imitating how Crazy Hand said it.

"THE LOVE ONES HAVE THE PERSON LOVE SOMEONE AT RANDOM. WHILE THE _**LOVE**_ ONES GIVE OUT TRUE LOVE! DUHHH! I THOUGHT IT WAS OBVIOUS!"

"True love?" Ness repeated hopefully.

"Oh, right, okay," Pit said. "So I just use these on random people? What if someone gets hurt?"

"PIIIIIIISHAAAAA!" Crazy Hand dismissed casually. "NO ONE'S GOING TO GET HURT! TRUST ME!"

Ness didn't even have a comment for that.

"WELL, I'D BETTER GET GOING NOW! GOOD LUCK TODAY, CU-PIT!" Crazy Hand concluded as he sped out the room without seeing Ness.

Ness came into the room to see Pit with his back turned, fiddling with the bow and quiver in his hands. "So who are you going to fire those at first?"

Pit jumped at the sound of his voice and turned around. "Y-you heard all that?"

"It was hard _not_ to hear it when standing outside the room." Ness shrugged. _And I eavesdropped, but I'm not telling him that._

"Oh," Pit said lamely.

"You know how to use that, right?" Ness gestured to the weapon Pit had.

"Of course! Why would you ask that?"

"Well, first off, you look a bit nervous," Ness pointed out. "And secondly, I think you're holding it slightly off."

Pit exhaled in defeat. "Honestly, I don't even know how to use a bow the proper way."

Ness' eyes widened. "But you use arrows in battle!"

"Yeah, but I can at least control them myself," Pit rebutted.

"You…control them?" Ness was getting more and more confused.

"Yeah, don't ask. It's really complicated," Pit said. "So will you help me?"

"Huh? Help you with what?"

"Make sure I shoot these arrows properly! I don't want to do something wrong."

"Eh? How would I know? And why don't you ask Link to help you or something?"

"But I don't want anyone else to know about this!" Pit cried. "You have to aim that thunder thing at yourself, right? That's good enough for me."

Ness sighed. "Okay, I'll help."

Pit's eyes brightened up considerably. "Really? Thank you!"

"No problem. Let's get going, Cu-Pit," Ness teased as he ran out the room.

"Oka— Hey! Don't call me that!" he heard Pit yelp from behind before the angel's footsteps followed.

* * *

><p>Ness and Pit walked out to the front of mansion where it was decorated with reds and whites for the day's events.<p>

The PSI user turned to Pit. "Since you need a bit of help on aiming, I think we should find you some targets to practice on."

Pit placed his hands on his hips, and a pout formed on his face. "I know I said that, but I at least have a good idea of how to do it." At this time, Ness noticed Link and Zelda eating breakfast outside together, and so must have Pit. "And speaking of targets…" He quickly began to take an arrow out of his quiver and held out his bow, aiming at the two lovers.

"Wait a minute, Pit!" Ness fleetly put his hand out to stop the angel. "You control your arrows so you probably don't aim as well as you think. And I was talking about dummies you could work on. Not real, breathing people!"

"But these arrows are limited. Crazy Hand wouldn't appreciate it if he saw me using his arrows on things without a heart," Pit said as an excuse. "And what's the worst thing that could happen?" He fired the arrow at Zelda before Ness could object.

Zelda's body seemed to twitch slightly when the arrow made impact. She gazed at Link with an unusual look in her eyes. "Hey, Link…"

"Yes, Zelda?" he asked, turning to her.

Zelda began to move extremely close to Link. "You know how it's Valentine's Day today, right?"

Link blinked at her confusedly before giving a small smile. "…Of course, that's why I invited you to eat outside for a picnic."

"I know, and I love how sweet you are. But…" Zelda began to trace her fingers on Link's neck. "Don't you think we should do… more?"

Ness began to blush at what Zelda was implying. "Uhh… What is she saying?"

"D-do you think this is supposed to happen?" Pit sputtered out.

Link's face flushed a light pink. "What do you mean, Zelda?"

"What I mean is—" She began to whisper something inaudible into Link's ear.

Link's eyes widened at what Zelda said, and his face went from light pink to bright red. "W-what? Zelda, are you okay? And…isn't it a little early to do that?

She just shrugged her shoulders. "It's better to do it now than later when the party is, right? Now let's go." Zelda kissed Link quickly and grabbed his hand to leave.

Ness was planted on the ground he stood on. "W-whoa…" He then muttered a small congrats to Link.

"…Well, it worked. Technically," Pit said.

"So is that how Zelda feels or something, then?" Ness wondered.

"I think so. I used Crazy's 'love-love' arrows, so it must've been," Pit explained. "But why was she acting so…dominant?"

"Maybe she's seme…" Ness paused for a minute. "You don't know what that is, do you?"

"Pff. Don't judge me just because I'm an angel."

It took five seconds for Pit's words to sink in. "Wait. YOU know what that is?"

The angel smirked. "Of course! What surprising here is that YOU know what it means."

"Don't judge me!" Ness defended. "I'm human. And I thought angels had pure minds or something."

"Who says I'm an angel inside?" Pit winked. "Anyways, we should try these arrows on other people." The 'angel' started to fly back to the mansion.

"Hey, wait up!" Ness shouted from behind, running after him.

* * *

><p>Having finally caught up to Pit, Ness ran into the lobby of the mansion and found the angel glancing around the room—possibly for another target. Just as Ness walked and stood beside him, Pit's face lit up.<p>

"Ah, it's Snake!" he exclaimed. Ness felt Pit take his arm and lift him into the air before the two ducked under a table. After fiddling with his quiver, Pit selected an arrow identical to the one that hit Zelda and took it out. "Let's get this right this time."

"Wait," Ness said, pulling Pit back just as he prepared to aim. "I don't think you should try that again. Remember Link and Zelda?"

"True, but this time I know where to aim." Pit aimed the arrow at Snake's heart and paused briefly before he fired it. The arrow zoomed towards the unsuspecting mercenary and hit its destination spot-on.

_Whoa. It actually hit him correctly,_ Ness thought to himself.

Snake's body twitched in a similar way to Zelda's when she was shot. He regained his senses after a few seconds, mumbled something under his breath Ness couldn't quite catch, and left the lobby into a hallway. Pit seemed to have a better idea of what he said.

"Did I hear a 'Samus' in there?" the angel inquired. "Guess I know who I'm hitting next…" He searched the lobby again, and conveniently, a certain bounty huntress was there, leaning back against a wall and reading something from a red and pink letter. When she turned around, Pit shut one eye, bit his lip, aimed, and fired. Ness expected this one to hit its target too, just like the arrow Pit aimed at Snake. Unfortunately, something always goes wrong when trying to mess with love.

"Heeeey, Samus!" Captain Falcon greeted her cheerfully, having the misfortune of walking in front of the arrow's direction and taking the hit. He froze for a brief moment. Samus glanced up from her letter and looked at him skeptically. Then his palm shot out and slammed into the wall beside her as he leaned in, closing the distance between them. "Do you have any idea how sexy you are?"

A normal girl would have been blushing with Falcon's face that close to hers. Samus only glared. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

At the corner of his eye, Ness noticed Snake's figure coming back. _Oh no…_

If looks could kill, Captain Falcon wouldn't have enough lives to survive Snake's glaring daggers. "Hey, get off her!" Snake yelled gruffly. He stomped up to the captain and roughly grabbed his shoulder, shoving him away from Samus.

Falcon managed to catch himself from falling. "Hey, what did you do that for? I was in the zone." He shoved Snake back with equal force. His punch flew so quickly that if Ness had blinked, he would've missed it. His fist landed on Snake's neck. Hard.

A mixed feeling of déjà vu and panic bubbled inside of Ness. Grabbing Pit's shoulders, Ness continuously shook the angel back and forth. "What do we do? They're gonna kill each other!" he screeched.

"Hold on, this is getting good!" Pit said, focusing intense, blue eyes on the fight.

_It is about to get good…_ Ness thought. _Wait, no! Must not…give into coolness…_

After recovering from Falcon's punch, Snake gripped Captain Falcon's collar and raised his own fist in a threatening manner. "You wanna try that again?"

Falcon, however, seemed to ignore Snake's fist and brought back his knee. "Oh, you're about to get knee of justice'd—"

"Like it would do a thing to me!" Snake interrupted.

"Will you two _idiots_ cut it out?" Samus cut them both off, grabbing them and shoving them off each other. "Go be a bickering couple somewhere else!" She stomped off angrily into the hallway, leaving the two to finish their business.

Ness didn't realize his mouth was hanging open until he felt Pit tilt his chin upward to close it.

"Look what you did, you idiot!" Falcon snapped accusingly at Snake.

Snake glared at him. "Me? _You're_ the one that tried to do her in public—"

"Umm… I think we should go," Pit said, blushing.

"Yeah. I don't want to be found here by anyone, _especially_ Samus," Ness agreed.

The two nodded and snuck out of the mansion.

* * *

><p>"That was…strange."<p>

Ness and Pit were outside the mansion now, concealing themselves behind a green hedge decorated with pink ribbons. Many Smashers were hanging around the front yard as well, playing in the grass, talking with friends, or spending time with their lovers.

"At least you're getting better at aiming," Ness told him, taking a few breaths to recover from their short run.

"Yeah. Now all I need is to know how to use these things correctly." Pit's face focused on something in the distance. Then, it lit up and he grinned.

Ness followed his gaze. A few feet away were Marth and Ike, talking casually to each other and walking toward the hedge Ness and Pit were hiding behind. "Huh? Why are you looking at Marth and Ike?"

Pit stood there for a long moment. Then suddenly, he sprung out of the bush and quickly fixed an arrow straight at Ike's heart. Ike froze immediately, widening his eyes. Marth did the same. Ness did too, until he realized what Pit was trying to do.

_Oh. Wait, so is Pit trying to figure out Ike's feelings?_ he thought, somewhat excitedly.

Pit released his grip on the arrow. Ike yelped in surprise as the arrow flew into his heart, and he fell down flat on his back onto the grass.

"IKE!" Marth cried. He glared at Pit with the fury of hell and bent down to check on his friend.

Ness winced. _Marth's glare looked so much more violent than I expected…_

Ike slowly pushed himself up in a sitting position. "Ugh… What was _that_ for, Pit?"

Pit looked confused. "Huh? Um. Wait…"

_So does that mean Ike doesn't feel the same way for Pit?_ Ness thought. A shame. He felt extremely disappointed.

Marth sighed in relief. "I got worried there for a second," he said, helping Ike up.

"B-but…" Pit hesitated. "That wasn't supposed to happen!"

"What? What were you trying to do?" Ike asked.

"Yes, Pit, what WERE you trying to do?" Marth spat.

_It would be smart to run away right at this moment, but…I wanna see what happens!_

"U-uh… Bye!" Pit squeaked, turning around and bounding past the bush Ness was hiding behind.

_That was smart of Pit,_ Ness thought. _I should probably get going before anyone misunderstands this._ Making sure the coast was clear, he quickly ran off in the same direction as Pit.

* * *

><p>"I think you've got the hang of it," Ness said. It was late afternoon by now, and after all the hectic events from the day, he was tired.<p>

Pit nodded in agreement. "So do I. Do you think I should try shooting three at a time?"

"No, I don't think you should. I can just imagine the trouble we'll get into," Ness explained.

"Well, we've narrowly avoided trouble this far. Why stop now?" Pit took out three new arrows and began to set them so they could all be shot at the same time.

"But—" Before Ness could finish what he was going to say, Pit fired the arrows. Each arrow was shot directly at Fox, Falco and Wolf.

"…Well, this should be good," Pit said, an amused smile playing at his lips.

"What do you think is going to happen?" Ness asked him.

"Who knows? Let's find out."

They both looked at the scene before them. The three pilots looked at each other for a long time before they all started to run toward each other. Not wanting to see what happened, Ness turned his head away. When he didn't hear anything breaking, the PSI-boy turned around to see the three glomping each other to death.

"W-wha…?" was all Ness was able to say.

"Erm…" Pit said, apparently lost for words, too.

Ness took grab of Pit's shoulders and began to shake him back and forth. "Pit! PLEASE tell me you didn't shoot the true love arrows at them, because if you did…" He shuddered in disgust at the thought of it.

"No, I shot the normal ones," Pit clarified once Ness stopped shaking him. He noticed how everyone was staring at the three hugging animals. "I think that's enough fun for the day."

Peach came out from the kitchen. "Oh, Smashers, I've prepared a special Valentine's Day dinner for you all! Come to the dining room to eat!"

Fox, Falco and Wolf all linked arms together as they walked to dinner.

"It's dinner already?" Ness asked, finally noticing the time. "I hope Steak-chan is there," he muttered to himself.

"Well, today was fun. I really like hanging out with you, Ness," Pit said happily. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go check on Link and ask him about his time with Zelda. See you!" He flashed Ness a grin and flew off to Link's room.

_Yeah, today was a nice day._ Ness nodded to himself in agreement. _I got to find out who everyone loves. It's blackmailing gold!_

* * *

><p>"Hey, guys!" Ness greeted everyone at the dinner table. "I had the weirdest day today." He sat next to Luigi, Toon Link and Pikachu, across from Lucas and Red.<p>

Lucas took a bite of a heart-shaped omelet. "Really? What happened?"

Ness began cutting his heart-shaped steak. "Well, Pit was assigned by Crazy Hand to use these love-love arrows—"

"Love-love arrows?" Toon Link cut him off, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, please don't interrupt. Anyway," Ness continued, "since Pit couldn't really aim an arrow properly, we spent the whole day shooting people and seeing them react!"

"But Pit uses bows in battle, right?" Luigi asked. "How can he not know how to aim?"

"I know," Red piped up. "I remember how long it took for Charizard to get used to dodging those things."

Ness remembered what Pit had told him earlier during the day. "Apparently, he can only shoot his arrows because he can control them to move around."

Luigi nodded in acknowledgement. "Oh, so that's how he gets his arrows to follow people around."

"Wait, wait," Lucas said. "Shooting people? 'Love-love' arrows? Smashers acting weird and lovey-dovey?"

"So basically," Toon Link said simply, "you spent the day messing with love."

"Exactly! Oh, and you guys probably don't want to go into either Link's or Zelda's room just in case."

Apparently, Ness' statement caused many different reactions from the other five. Red blushed lightly and turned the other way. Lucas and Pikachu seemed oblivious, as Lucas gave a curious, "Hmm? Why?" and Pikachu blinked and tilted his head.

Toon Link's cat-eyes widened and he blushed. "W-w-what did they do?"

Luigi also had a similar expression on his face, except not as incredulous as Toon Link's. "Oh, good for them."

"And I'd also avoid Samus, Captain Falcon, and Snake, too," Ness added.

Just then, Crazy Hand and his loud voice boomed into the dining room. "HEY! YOU GUYS, YOU GUYS, YOU GUYS! MASTER HAND HERE HAS SOMETHING TO SAY!" Everyone at the table winced.

Master Hand floated inside the room a moment after, holding a white present bag concealed by a pink ribbon. "As you are all aware, today is—"

"VALENTINE'S DAY! WE KNOW, BRO!"

"Is it me, or is it _louder_ now?" Ness asked, inspecting his eardrum.

"It's probably from eating chocolate all day or something," Toon Link said.

Red raised an eyebrow. "_Eating_ chocolate?"

A shrug from the boy with the green cap. "Hey, you never know. I bet they need to eat something, too."

Master Hand attempted to continue. "…So I am pleased to give you all these—"

"SPECIAL TRANSMITTY-THINGS THAT YOU USE TO TALK!" Crazy Hand nudged Master Hand eagerly. "TELL THEM HOW IT WORKS!"

"I was _getting_ to that, Crazy. These transmitter devices will be handed out to each Smasher. The purpose of them is to—"

"TOO SLOW! YOU USE 'EM TO CONTACT A PERSON FROM HOME SO YOU CAN SPEND THE REST OF VALENTINE'S BEING ALL KISSY-KISSY WITH YOUR LOVER!"

The room suddenly livened up at the new update that was given as everyone stared at the devices in the bag as if they were winning lottery tickets.

_So we can call anyone, then?_ Ness thought to himself.

Master Hand attempted to continue. "To put it bluntly, yes. But keep in mind you cannot have any physical contact with the person you're calling. You can only see them through the transmitter. I have sent a transmitter to the people close to every one of you, so—"

"SO THE PERSON DOESN'T FREAK OUT TO HEAR YOU TALKING AND THE PERSON DOESN'T KNOW WHERE THE HELL YOUR VOICE IS COMING FROM! ISN'T THAT NEAT!" Crazy Hand butted in again.

Master Hand made a sound that sounded like he was clearing his throat. "I will now leave the bag in the lobby, so you may get one after you have finished dinner. If you take more than one, I will know immediately, and Crazy Hand will—"

"YOU'RE GONNA GET SO BUUUUUUUUSTEEEEEEEEED, OOOOOOOOOOOOH!"

"Exactly. Enjoy yourselves." Master Hand finished, and he floated out of the dining room.

Crazy Hand soon followed. "BYE, GUYS! ENJOY YOUR KISSY SESSIONS!"

Once everyone finished dinner, Toon Link was the first one to mention the subject. "So who are you guys going to call? I think I'll call Tetra. It's been a while since I talked to her."

"Oh, I'm just going to call a girl I know named Daisy." Luigi said, adjusting his hat to hide the small blush on his face.

"I think I'll call Blue*," Red answered thoughtfully. "That is, unless my mom calls first to remind me about extra underwear…again…"

Lucas gaped at Red. "YOUR mom does that too? I was just about to say the same thing!"

Ness and Toon Link had to try their hardest to suppress the laugh that was threatening to slip out.

"So who are you going to call, Ness?" Luigi asked curiously.

"Oh, just a girl who traveled with me on my adventure. She was a really big help… Her name was Paula," Ness replied, trying to act as casual as he could. But he let a small smile slip.

"I knew it," Lucas commented, smiling.

Red gave a smile of understanding to Ness. "With that smile, she sounds like someone special to you."

"She is." Ness' face began to turn red with embarrassment.

"Aww, look at that blush. You're in love, aren't you?" Toon Link teased.

"Pikaa." Pikachu smiled in agreement.

"Aww, I knew it. It's really obvious, Ness," Lucas stated matter-of-factly.

"I-I don't think I'm in love. Not yet, anyway…" Ness denied.

"The way you're acting is a clear sign of it, actually," Luigi pointed out.

"Are you going to tell her tonight?" Lucas wondered inquiringly.

Ness sighed in defeat. "Not tonight… I kind of want to do that in person."

"Hmm, okay," Lucas hummed. "Well, I'm going now. Are you ready, Red?"

"Yep." Red stood up. "We'll see you guys tomorrow."

"Yeah, I'm going to go to my room with Pikachu to call Tetra now. I just hope it's not morning there or I'm in big trouble," Toon Link muttered the last part. "Anyway, good luck, Ness." He ran off with Pikachu perched on his shoulder.

"I guess I'll go too, then. I'll see you in our room later, Ness," Luigi informed as he walked away.

"Okay, night, I guess." After everyone left, Ness walked off to find somewhere to talk.

* * *

><p><em>Where should I go for privacy?<em> Ness thought, walking down the hall to his room. His hand that held the transmitter was shaking, he noticed. But why? Was he nervous that he was going to see Paula again after such a long time? Another voice interrupted Ness' thoughts.

"—remember to change your underwear?"

Ness suppressed the laugh that formed in his throat. There was no doubt about it. That was Kumatora. And it came from Lucas' room.

_Wow, Kumatora sure knows how to greet someone._

"W-wha…? Did my mom tell you to ask that?" came Lucas' voice.

Ness stopped walking and went up to Lucas' door, resting his ear against the wood. He couldn't help but eavesdrop again. Especially when the conversation involved both Lucas and Kumatora.

"I'm just messing with you, Luke. So how goes it?"

"Oh. It's great here. It's better than I expected it to be."

"Oh, really? Has my PK Starstorm been useful to you?

"It's really helpful. Thank you for teaching it to me."

_So it was Kumatora who taught him that.  
><em>

"No problem. Besides, you'll need all the help you can get in a fighting tournament." A pause. Then, "Sooo, met any cute girls you fancy yet?" Ness could practically _hear_ the smirk in Kumatora's voice. And the blush in Lucas'.

"N-no," the blonde stammered. "Most of them are too old for me… W-why, are you jealous?"

"Oooooooooh," Ness whispered.

"Pshhh. Why would I be? Is it wrong for me to just be curious?" Kumatora said evasively.

Lucas sounded unconvinced. "Okaaay, whatever you say. How is it back home?"

_Oh, that's right! I need to go call Paula,_ Ness remembered. He got so caught up in Lucas' conversation he must've forgotten. Hopefully she wasn't asleep yet. He stood up and continued down the hallway, leaving Lucas and Kumatora back to their own business.

* * *

><p>Taking a look around, Ness stepped outside to the balcony on the second floor of the mansion. "This should be a good place to talk." He sat down on a chair and turned on the transmitter.<p>

The screen crackled to life, showing a confused Paula. "Ah!" she squeaked in surprise.

Ness smiled and waved at her. "Hey! Did I scare you?"

Paula smiled back through the projector. "Ness! It's okay; I was just trying to find out how the transmitter works when you called."

Ness slightly smirked. "I didn't notice by the confused look on your face. So how is everything back at Eagleland?"

"Oh, it's alright," Paula said, waving her hand dismissively. "What I'm really interested in is how you're doing."

"Me?" Ness scratched his hat-covered head. "I'm doing well. It's nice being in the tournament again."

Paula smiled sadly. "That's good."

Ness noticed her sad expression. "Hey, what's with that smile? What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just miss you so much. It feels…incomplete without you here," she confessed.

Ness blushed brightly and muttered some inaudible words.

Paula tilted her head slightly. "What was that?"

"I said…I feel incomplete without you, too." Ness turned his red face away from the transmitter.

"Oh, Ness… This is why it was hard for me to accept the fact you were leaving for the tournament again."

Hearing this, Ness turned his attention back to the screen to notice Paula's slight blush. "Huh? What do you mean?"

Paula looked down this time. "I-I don't know. I find myself worrying about you all the time. And to make it worst, I won't be there if you get hurt. I hate that feeling."

"Oh." Ness tried to smile. "Don't worry, Paula. I'm not going to get hurt. I won't allow it if it makes you worry."

"Yes, but that's easier said than done. And me… I feel unsafe without you here," Paula whispered, sounding like she was about to cry. "I can take care of myself if something were to happen, but… I don't know. It's not the same."

"I know what you mean…" Ness muttered. He paused, thinking for a minute. "Let's make a promise then."

Paula looked up and stared at Ness. "A promise?"

Ness nodded. "That we'll see each other again unharmed, and we'll pray for each other's safety."

She seemed to take some time to consider it. And then she finally nodded. "Yes… I promise. Say… "fuzzy pickles"?" Paula smiled warmly.

Ness grinned in accomplishment and made out a peace sign. "Of course!" He could just hear the photo shot snap at that moment.

Paula laughed at Ness' silliness. "Well, it's getting late, so I should be going to sleep now."

It was getting pretty late. "Okay. Good night," Ness said softly, attempting to mask the disappoint in his voice.

Paula turned off her transmitter.

"…I love you," Ness whispered to himself, before turning his own transmitter off.

* * *

><p>*We're talking about the Japanese Blue from the Pokémon Adventures manga, if you've ever read it. Which means Blue is the GIRL, not the boy. (Kai: ...But that doesn't mean I don't also ship GreenRed.)

**Kai: WELL, now wasn't that an adorable chapter.**

**Mato: It SURE was! I'm so happy this Valentine's Day~**

**Kai: So am I! I got tons of chocolate at school and I specifically wore red and pink accessories just for today.**

**Mato: I had to wear black to school today for certain reasons but I got lots of chocolates and one of my friends even got me a rose :]**

**Kai: D'awwww. Here's hoping you guys enjoy your Valentine's Day as much as we did. And I hope you enjoyed this 18-PAGE LONG CHAPTER.**

**Mato: Wait, wait, wait. HOLD IT! THIS is 18-pages?**

**Kai: It's heading towards 19 as this A/N gets longer.**

**Mato: MUHAHAHAHA! I hope you loved it then!**

**Kai: Yup! Please make sure to leave a review on your way out! Remember: more reviews = faster updates! Oh, and constructive criticism will also be greatly appreciated.**

**Mato: Unless it's flames. If there are any flames then IMMA FIRARING MA LAZAR!**

**Kai: CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. Which means NO FLAMES ALLOWED. It will only discourage us. And you don't want us to be sad.**

**Mato: Because two sad girls can be really scary and dangerous to have you know.**

**Kai: Yeah, Crazy already hurt our feelings about being boyfriend-less. But then again, I'm already married to video games, so...**

**Mato: Yeah and I wanna marry someone who plays video games... and maybe wanna marry someone IN a video game *mumble mumble***

**Kai: It's probably best that we don't have boyfriends. Cause then it would be hard not to cheat on them.**

**Mato: Yeah. Well anyways, enough of our ranting. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!**

**Hugs and Kisses,**

**~kai and MATO**


	6. This is Maidness!

**Mato: PLEASE FORGIVE US FOR THE SHORT CHAPTER AND DON'T KILL US TO SACRIFICE US TO ANYTHING! PLEASE!**

**Kai: So we kind of...procrastinated...a lot... BUT we kept our promise!**

**Mato: Yeah! It IS a chapter even though it's tiny!**

**Kai: This is more of a random short we thought of. But we PROMISE the next chapter will be back to the usual long length.**

**Mato: In fact, I bet the next chapter could be longer next time! Don't hold that against us though if it isn't~**

**Kai: Yup! So anyway, just try your best to enjoy this chapter as much as you can (which I have a feeling won't be that hard)!**

**Mato: Yep! We certainly enjoyed thinking it up. Hurhurhur.**

* * *

><p>Zelda opened the mansion's lobby door. She caught Peach's eye and smiled, strolling up to her with a shopping bag in hand. "Peach! While I was out shopping, I bought something for you," she said, handing the princess her shopping bag.<p>

"Aww, Zelda," Peach said sweetly, happily taking the gift. "You really didn't have to, you know." Peach peered into the shopping bag, but then she lifted her head and looked at Zelda's smiling, expectant face. "Um…Zelda?"

"Yes?"

"I don't mean to be rude, but…" Peach placed her hand inside the bag and took out what was inside: a maid's dress. "I think this might be too small for my taste."

"Oh, nonsense," Zelda insisted. "You just haven't tried it on yet. I'll was it right now so you could." She took the dress from Peach and walked down to the laundry room to wash it.

* * *

><p>"Dear, I think it got smaller now…"<p>

Zelda frowned. "Oh, I'm sorry, Peach. But I can't return this back to the store… What should I do?"

"Well, this is a problem. Hmmm." Peach looked around the lobby and spotted Ness and Lucas watching TV. She suddenly had an idea. "I know! Zelda, we could…"

Zelda's eyes widened. "Do you really think he would agree?"

"Of course he won't, but don't you think he would be the cutest little thing if he wore it?"

"Well… Oh, all right. Your plans always somehow miraculously work, anyway."

A grin from Peach. "Of course. Now let's go ask him first."

Zelda nodded and placed the maid's dress behind her as the two princesses began to walk up to the PSI-users. Once they got there, Zelda politely started the conversation. "Hello, boys. Lucas, would you mind taking something off our hands?"

Ness averted his attention from the TV and found Peach and Zelda, Zelda being the one who addressed them. "Oh, hi, Peach and Zelda. What do you want to give to Lucas?"

"It's nothing much, but we think it would look cute. Why don't you show them, Zelda?" Peach asked her.

In response, Zelda held out the maid's dress.

Immediately, Lucas' eyes widened. "Wh-why are you giving that to me?"

Ness found this hilarious, but he didn't want Lucas to notice his laughter about to escape his mouth. He covered his mouth in an attempt to quiet it down.

"Because we thought you would look cute, silly," Peach chirped. "So do you want it?"

"Um…no thanks. I really appreciated it, but it's not really…erm…my taste," Lucas concluded, obviously trying to sound polite about declining.

Zelda frowned at this. "Oh, that's a shame." She looked at Peach questioningly, who responded with a wink that Ness didn't understand.

"Well, that's a shame, really," Peach said. "I guess we'll have to— QUICK, HOLD HIM DOWN!"

Zelda was like lighting, quickly pinning one of Lucas' arms down and whipping out the maid's dress from behind her back.

"Ness!" Peach called. "Help us get him in the dress!"

The sudden assault surprised Ness, but for some reason, he liked the idea of humiliating Lucas the maid. So he smirked and said a quick "Okay then" before pinning down Lucas' other arm.

"Gyaaaaah! Wh-what are you guys DOING?" Lucas yelled out, struggling against them.

"It's almost…on…" Zelda said, trying to fit the rest of the dress on.

"Ooh, I know you're going to look absolutely adorable in the outfit, Lucas," Peach said delightfully, clapping her hands together. "Trust me!"

_This will be revenge for the explosion that one time,_ Ness thought, resisting the urge to let out an evil laugh.

Zelda swiped the sweat of her forehead and let out a small "whew" when she finally manage to get the dress to fit onto Lucas' small body. "Finished!"

When Zelda got out of the way of Ness' view on Lucas, he had to keep himself from laughing to death at the sight. "I've got to say, Lucas," a small snicker escaped Ness' lips, "the dress does suit you well."

Peach nodded her head in accomplishment. "Just like I said it would, right? Would you like me to get a mirror so you could see, Lucas?"

Lucas narrowed his eyes. "No."

"Oh, fine," Peach said with a clear pout on her face.

Ness raised an eyebrow at Lucas' attitude. _What's up with him?_

Lucas briskly turned away to exit through the door. What was waiting for him was completely unexpected by everyone inside. Apparently, their friends were very close to the door eavesdropping from outside and now had stupid faces in response to the outfitting Lucas was wearing.

Pikachu had his laughter muffled into Toon Link's hat as said boy fell to the floor laughing. Luigi could only hang his mouth agape at the unexpected surprise. Red was the only one who was able to create a full sentence clearly. "Uhh…what the heck are you wearing, Lucas?"

Ness came to the door to see everyone else. "Guys? What are you doing here?"

"Er… We were training… When this happened…" Red tried to explain the best way possible without sound offensive.

Lucas uncharacteristically growled and turned to Ness, a dangerous expression on his face. "You…"

"Eep." Ness flinched at Lucas' fierce tone. "Y-yes, Lucas?"

"You!" Lucas roughly poked Ness on the chest. "Why did you let them do this to me? No, why did you HELP them do this to me?"

Ness put his arm behind his head nervously. He sincerely didn't think his best friend would react like he did. "W-well, I thought it would be interesting and all." The PSI-user laughed awkwardly, "Plus, I wanted to know what it would be like wearing a dress."

Lucas gave Ness an icy glare. "Then let me show you just how this feels like!"

"Wha-what do you mean by that, Luke?" Ness was getting scared at where the conversation was heading.

Lucas grabbed Ness by his shirt and dragged him back into a random room, slamming the door behind him.

"Meep! Luke! What are you doing? Gah!" Ness cried out with other muffled words.

Many seconds passed by with everyone staring the door down in anticipation. The door had finally opened with Ness wearing the tiny dress and Lucas with a look of satisfaction painted on his face.

"…H-heh. This looks good on me, don't you think, guys?" Ness asked.

"Yes, you do. Much better than me, don't you think?" Lucas said thoughtfully.

"O-of course! My sexiness just can't be contained!" Ness proclaimed as he struck a pose.

Pikachu, along with Toon Link, began to laugh again. "O-oh my goodness... This is gold!" Toon Link exclaimed in between cackles.

Luigi shook his head as he lightly chuckled. "You don't have much shame, do you, Ness?"

_Yeah, laugh it up all you want, you jerks. My manly pride is dying here in the inside, and all you can do is worsen it, _Ness thought, sighing.

* * *

><p><strong>Kai: Sooooo? Was it okay for such a short chapter?<strong>

**Mato: If it wasn't I'm sorry. We got distracted with new games too in my defense.**

**Kai: Yeah. Like Kid Icarus: Uprising… EWJFDSLFHAS DF**

**Mato: I got Tales of the Abyss! (yeah I know it's not a Nintendo game but I love it SO much QoQ)**

**Kai: Hah well. Enough of that. Anyway, look forward to the next chapter!**

**Mato: Tah tah guys! May we see you in a month's time!**


	7. Birthday Bashin'

**Kai: We are LATE.**

**Mato: I KNOOOOOOOW! *sobs into random hankerchief***

**Kai: And we didn't even get the ENTIRE CHAPTER UP! We had to split it into two parts...**

**Mato: Stupid distractions. WHY MUST YOU TEMPT US?**

**Kai: *sigh* Okay guys, we're really going to try to get up the second part of the chapter soon. We've learned our lesson. And maybe a few new stories as well!**

**Mato: Yep! We're gonna do KIU fanfics now since it came out pretty recently.**

**Kai: So check out our channel often if you're a fan of the game! ...But anyway, that's enough advertising in the A/N. This chapter was supposed to be released on the day of the Mother 3 anniversary, which was April 20, so you might have an idea of what it's going to be about.**

**Mato: Yeah! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY LUCAS AND CLAUS! *throws random confeiti around the fanfic***

**Kai: Where are you getting all this random stuff?**

**Mato: That random 99 cent over there. *points upward***

**Kai: I don't see it...**

**Mato: That's because it's a SECRET random store.~**

**Kai: Whatever you say... Oh! Anyway...**

**Mato: What? ... OH RIGHT! Enjoy part one of this special chapter! *waves random hand***

* * *

><p>"Hmm… Whoa, Steak-chan…whoa," Ness grumbled in his sleep as he tossed and turned in his dream with his beloved.<p>

His dream was very short-lived, though, as Crazy Hand slammed himself into the room and poked Ness roughly on the stomach. "RISE AND SHINE LITTLE NESS-Y! WE HAVE A JOB FOR YOU!"

"GAH! W-WHAT THE HECK?" Ness screamed as he fell out of bed, clutching his stomach in pain.

Master Hand came in next, lightly jabbing Crazy Hand with one of his fingers. "Keep quiet, you fool. You were only supposed to try to wake up Ness."

Trying to keep everything quiet, Ness attempted to calm both hands down. "Uhh… It's okay. Luigi is a heavy sleeper, anyway…" _I hope._

This just encouraged Crazy to get louder. "SEE? I DIDN'T DO NOTHING BAD, BRO!"

Master Hand visibly flinched at the volume level. "Let's get right to business before Crazy could say anything else. I apologize for waking you up so early, Ness, but we have a reason for that." The right hand floated towards the door, wanting Ness to follow.

"YEAH, GET OUT OF BED, YA LAZY BUTT, AND FOLLOW US!"

_What could be so important that I need to wake up so early for? I mean, I NEVER get up this early!_ Silently, the PSI user stood up from his place on the floor and followed the two into the hallway, leaving the snoozing Luigi behind.

"It will all make sense when you follow us to the portal room," Master Hand said when Ness followed him from behind.

"Portal room? We have one of those?" Ness questioned. That was the first time he's ever heard of this.

"YEAH! HOW CAN YOU FORGET SOMETHIN' LIKE THAT?"

"It's a secret. Remember, Crazy?" Master Hand reminded. "Hurry along now. We don't want to bother any other Smashers that have woken up from your outburst."

Crazy Hand made an offended noise. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'OUTBURST'? I'M BARELY WHISPERING RIGHT HERE, Y'NOW?"

_THAT'S his whisper!_ "S-so why was I woken up so early? I don't like getting up until noon." Ness complained.

"Are you aware of whose birthday it is today?" Master Hand asked.

"Of course; it's Lucas's and Claus's birthday today!" Ness answered easily.

"DING DING DING! COOOOOOOOORECT!" Crazy Hand confirmed noisily.

Ness still didn't get it. "But what does that have to do with anything?"

"We go by tradition here," Master Hand informed, "as we like to keep all our contestants entertained with their family's or friends' birthday parties by holding them here. Can you guess what we're heading to the portal room for now?"

"I'm too tired to guess, even if it is obvious." Ness yawned. "Can you just tell me?"

"Claus, Kumatora, Duster, Boney, Hinawa, and Flint are visiting."

"Really? That'll get Lucas excited," Ness responded. "But I still don't get why I'm here."

"YEAH! YOU TELL 'IM BRO, SINCE I FORGOT!"

Master Hand let a tired sigh escape his nonexistent mouth. "It's Claus's birthday as well today. I need you to keep him and Lucas away from both each other and the party until everything is complete."

The PSI boy blinked. "A surprise? Okay, sure. So when are they coming?"

"RIGHT NOW, ACTUALLY! WHY DO YOU THINK WE'RE UP SO EARLY? LOL!"

Crazy Hand butted in.

Master Hand nodded himself up and down. "Exactly. Let's go before they end up go through another portal."

* * *

><p>"Soooo," Ness drew out at the Portal Room. "How long do I have to wait for them to come?"<p>

"They should be coming anytime now," Master Hand acknowledged.

Ness blinked. "Oh, okay. So do I just wait here?"

Crazy Hand decided to burst into the conversation at this time. "YEP, THAT'S THE PLAN! ME AND BRO HERE HAVE TO GET GOING NOW!"

Ness panicked at this. "H-huh? You mean you're not going to help me?"

"UH-HUH! DON'T WORRY TOO MUCH, THOUGH! WE LEFT EVERYTHING THAT'S NEEDED FOR THE PARTY! ALL YOU HAFTA DO IS KEEP LUCAS AND CLAUS AWAY FROM EACH OTHER AND THE PARTY, LOL." Crazy Hand quickly floated merrily out of the room.

"Remember it." And with that, Master Hand flew off behind his over excitable brother.

Ness just sighed at the new stress of responsibility he had now. _Well I hope they come soon or else I'll fall asleep here..._

"Woof woof!"

_Huh? Was that…a bark I just heard?_ Ness thought. Slowly, he tiptoed to the portal, where he presumed the sound came from. He merely stood there, staring into the hypnotizing swirl of whatever sort of dimensional wall separated this world from the other side. Until—

"WAHOO!"

Ness only had enough time to catch a glance of the orange-headed blur that jumped out of the portal, which rammed into him, causing him to tumble to the floor on his back. "Eeek! What the—"

Another figure, this time smaller, leaped out of the portal and landed on top of Ness. Ness felt something wet yet soft lick his cheek many times, and he already knew who it was: Lucas's faithful dog, Boney.

Then he heard another voice. "You two are pretty active for it being early in the morning. Though I guess it's not that surprising."

The next figure, taller, walked out of the portal. Ness recalled Lucas telling him about his friends, and a man clad in a light blue top and reddish-pink jeans was one of them. Duster. Ness had spoken to him a few times, but they were more of acquaintances than friends. But he wasn't the last of the visitors as Ness heard another voice, annoyed but somewhat nonchalant, from the portal.

"Hey. You're sorta in my way, Dust. Or have you forgotten I'm here?"

Poor Duster was still standing in front of the portal when a purple-sleeved hand harshly shoved his back.

"Geh!" Duster yelped, falling to the ground. Kumatora strolled out of the portal with crossed arms and menacing narrowed eyes.

Ness sweatdropped. _It's good to see Kumatora is in such a good mood this morning…_

Claus excitedly ran up to Ness, grinning from ear-to-ear. "Glad to see you again, Ness! It's been almost a year now!"

Ness quirked a brow. "Almost a year? Huh. Time flies by fast," he mused.

"Where's Lucas?" Duster asked after picking himself up from the floor and dusting himself off.

"Oh, he's still sleeping in his own room."

Claus scoffed. "Seriously? It's OUR birthday today and he's spending the morning snoozing in bed?"

Kumatora's eyes narrowed even further until they were tiny slits. "We ALL should still be in bed. It's only 5 in the MORNING, dammit!"

_I agree with Kumatora. It's too early to even be alive right now!_ Ness thought to himself.

"I guess we'll wait until he wakes, then," Duster said. Boney barked in agreement. Or what Ness assumed was agreement in dog-speak.

A groan came from Claus's throat. "Fine. But at least give us something to do, Ness. A tour or something. To keep us busy."

"Okay, okay. But don't blame me if we get lost in this mansion," Ness warned. "I barely remember where everything is myself."

* * *

><p>Ness guided Claus, Boney, Duster, and Kumatora out of the Portal Room and through some parts of the mansion, much to Claus's delight (but not so much Kumatora's). He was currently approaching the hallway that held a few dorms. "So down this next corridor should lead to some of the rooms where some of the Smashers—"<p>

Ness froze. Walking around the corner of the hallway was Lucas.

"Live," Ness finished, keeping his eyes on Lucas. If Lucas saw his twin and his friends here, the surprise would be ruined! "Uh…" Ness racked his brain for an idea, but he couldn't think of anything but _Get Lucas the hell out of here_.

"What's up?" Claus asked. He was looking at something to the side when he began to turn around. Panicking, Ness grabbed his shoulders and quickly faced him the other way before he could see Lucas.

"Uhh… I think I showed this place already. Just wait here and I'll check just in case."

Before Lucas could come any closer and endanger spoiling his birthday surprise, Ness sprinted toward the blonde and lightly pushed him back around the corner so the others wouldn't see him. Lucas looked up, eyes lighting up slightly when he saw Ness. "Oh, Ness. Where have you been? I haven't seen you all day."

"It's only 10 o'clock, Luke. Anyway, happy birthday!" Ness said cheerfully with a huge smile. "What are you going to do now?"

"Thanks," Lucas said, responding with a warm smile of his own. "I was just going to the kitchen to get something to eat for breakfast."

_Oh shi— The way to the kitchen is where Claus is._

"Really? You should take the long way to the kitchen. It's more…relaxing?" Ness tried.

Lucas blinked. "Why, is there something I shouldn't see in the hallway?"

_Geh!_ _Think, Ness. THINK._ When it came to figuring out Ness's lies, Lucas was almost always spot on. But Ness had always managed to convince him somehow, so he could do it again.

"Well…I didn't want to tell you, but…" Ness leaned in to Lucas so he could whisper in his ear. "Let's just say…uh…Wario was just there and he had a lot of garlic this morning… It's not pretty, Lucas. It's not pretty."

Lucas appeared to be pondering over this. "Really? But I don't smell anything—"

"Y-yeah well the smell's already gone but what he left there surely isn't so you should avoid going that way as much as possible!" Ness said hurriedly, hoping he sounded convincing enough for Lucas to let him off the hook. Even if he _did_ know Ness was lying.

To Ness's relief, Lucas made a disgusted face. "Well, okay then. I guess I'll see you later, Ness." Then he turned around and left for the kitchen.

When Lucas was completely out of sight, Ness heaved an enormous sigh. "That was close!" If this was how it was going to be before the party actually started, then he was going to go through hell trying to keep Lucas and Claus from seeing each other. On top of that, there was also Boney, Kumatora and Duster… But the princess and the thief were going to help Ness set up the party area soon, anyway. However, Hinawa and Flint were coming later on…

"Woof woof!"

Ness turned to the source of the voice, which happened to be Boney. The dog ran up to him, wagging his tail playfully. Ness kneeled down on one knee to pet his head. "Hey, what's up? Where are Claus and the others?"

Boney motioned behind him with a jerk of his head.

"Oh, okay." Then an idea suddenly came to Ness. "Hey, Boney, can you distract Claus for me while I help Kumatora and Duster set up the party? And can you also tell those two to meet me at the party area outside right now?"

The dog nodded animatedly and ran back where Claus, Kumatora and Duster were still at. Ness was surprised that none of the three came to see what was taking him so long when he was talking to Lucas.

"Thanks, Boney!" Ness called, running off to the party area to start getting it ready.

* * *

><p>Duster swiped some sweat that had accumulated on his forehead. "Phew! This is a lot more work than I expected." They were currently outside in the warm sun, and Duster was placing dozens of potted sunflowers around the open space.<p>

"I know. What is some of this stuff, anyway?" Ness said, staring at a large metal bar he had taken out of the box of supplies the hands provided. He recalled this was the bar Master Hand would smack Crazy Hand with whenever he was up to his mischief.

"Beats me." Kumatora shrugged. "But anything to give Lucas and his twin the best birthday ever, right?" From her place atop a stepladder, she hung up the letter C in Claus's name.

"Yeah. I'm just worried over Lucas or Claus figuring out what we're doing," Ness said.

One of the doors leading back to the mansion opened slowly, and Ness's heart suddenly stopped. Fortunately, it wasn't Lucas or Claus; it was just Red.

"Ness…?" Red started unsurely, taking a small step outside. "Can I talk to you?"

"Sure. I'll be right back, guys," Ness told Kumatora and Duster. He stood up and put the metal bar back inside of the box before walking toward Red. "What is it?"

Red seemed to hesitate for a moment. "Well…I'll just say it. What's Lucas's twin doing in our dorm room?"

_Wait, what?_

"H-huh? What are you talking about, Red? His twin isn't here," Ness said, laughing nervously.

Red blinked. "I think he is. I just came back from a match to see him playing around with his dog in our room."

Ness briefly wondered if lying to Red would be any easier than lying to Lucas.

"Well…are you sure it wasn't Lucas with his hair dyed to fool you?" Ness mentally hit himself. _What type of logic was THAT?_

Red sighed. "Ness, he told me straight out he's Lucas's twin."

And the answer was no.

"Oh," Ness said simply, deciding to just tell the truth. "Well, has Lucas seen him yet?"

"I don't think so," Red said, tilting his head. "He hasn't come back to the room yet…" He looked around. "Judging by the looks of this place, are you planning a surprise party for them?"

"Yep! We're also trying to keep Claus away from Lucas to make it a better surprise. By the way, where do you think Luke is right now?"

"Well, since it's almost 1, I'd say he's about to get lunch. Were you planning to have him eat here? If so, you'd better stop him."

"Oh, whoa! It's already noon?" Ness gasped, surprised. "Anyway, I have to stop him! Thanks for telling me."

Red smiled. "No problem. And I'll make sure to let the others know about this soon." He paused. "We _are_ invited, right?"

"Of course! You're all Lucas's friends, too!" Ness said, smiling back. He ran past Red and hurried to the kitchen before Lucas could take a bite of an omelet.

* * *

><p><strong>Mato: Well that was a fun chapter don't ya think Kai?<strong>

**Kai: Yeah! But the real party hasn't even started yet, which I'm sure tons of people will LOVE. Especially Mother fans.**

**Mato: I bet we made them squeal with delight when they found out the M3 family made an appearance!**

**Kai: Mhmm. Now just wait for NESS'S birthday.**

**Mato: Oh. We have something special for that planned out already. *laughs random evil laugh* And we even have something for Ninten's birthday too!**

**Kai: We've planned so many chapters, but we're not sure if we'll be able to even get them in on time... That's because if you recall at the beginning of this story, we said they would be staying at Smash Mansion for a YEAR.**

**Mato: And since for most of that said year, all we did was sit on our butts this might be shorter than expected.**

**Kai: Sadly, yeah... But you guys do know that SSB4 is coming out eventually, right? Riiiight? *nudge nudge***

**Mato: I don't know 'bout you guys but I think it'll be something fun to write about when it comes out. *wink wink***

**Kai: Weeell, enough of that. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and look forward to the next one! Don't worry, it won't take until the end of May (I hope).**

**Mato: Yeah I hope we don't procrastinate. We're gonna get start ASAP now!**

**Kai: Yeah! And don't forget to look forward to our other stories! Please leave a review on your way out!**

**Mato: Yep! See ya later! *opens random door***


	8. Breaking News

Mato: D: D: D: D:

Kai: D; D; D; D;

Mato: We are complete failures…

Kai: This time it was inevitable…

Mato: Not only were we lazy but we were put on a strain schedule. Especially me at the end if May (I REALLY hate school sometimes)

Kai: I have a lot of work to do too. Especially English homework. So we decided to tell you guys this because you would be wondering why we haven't updated

Mato: Yes and we kinda lost motivation for the story again. (Yes, you can slap us with fishes for saying that)

Kai: If it wasn't obvious enough. I'm sorry to say this is becoming more like an exhausting task than a meant-to-be fun little idea we had.

Mato: Of course, talking about the idea is more fun that actually writing. Anyways, on a brighter side of things, it's almost summer and our one-shot season is about to begin~

Kai: So we've had ton of these ideas for one-shots but we have got the chance to write them

Mato: Hahahaha yeah we have a lot of ideas for the a lot of fandoms we have so don't worry!

Kai: But we're still going to finish the story in time so don't worry about it. We just need a few days to get ourselves together.

Mato: Yeah! Now let's hope to no more distractions!

Kai: … But there probably will be.

Mato: But let's hope we can beat the crap out of it this time!

Kai: Wish us luck! And look forward to the party!


End file.
